San Francisco crippled by widespread power outages on busy holiday shopping weekend

The outages caused widespread disruption on local transit systems and traffic lights.

San Francisco was hit by widespread power failures Saturday that left thousands of homes and businesses in the dark, closing stores and disrupting transit during the busy holiday shopping period.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company said in a statement on X that it was working with first responders and city officials on a power failure affecting about 130,000 customers.

“We have stabilized the grid and are not expecting additional customer outages at this time,” the utility wrote. It added it was working toward possibly restoring power later on Saturday, “though we are not able to confirm that just yet.”

A series of outages began in the morning in the western part of the city and spread throughout the day, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. An afternoon fire inside a PG&E substation was responsible for at least part of the outages, the paper wrote, citing local fire officials.

The outages caused widespread disruption on local transit systems and traffic lights.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit wrote on its website that trains were bypassing some stations in the city’s downtown. “If you don’t need to travel tonight, please stay off the roads and stay inside,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie wrote on X.