Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers around San Francisco faced more unexpected power outages over the weekend as the utility company worked to fix the damage from a fire and blackout a week earlier.
About 11,000 customers in the Richmond and Presidio lost electricity for hours Sunday after a transformer caught fire 7:45 p.m. at 12th Avenue and Balboa Street, according to NBC Bay Area (opens in new tab). The San Francisco Fire Department sent firefighters after getting a call about a transformer that was sparking and flaming, a spokesperson said, The power was restored at 10:15 p.m., the TV station reported.
A separate outage around 11 a.m. Saturday saw thousands of customers in the Panhandle, Golden Gate Park and the Sunset District lose power, Mission Local (opens in new tab) said. Power was returned to those customers Saturday afternoon.
In a sign of progress, PG&E said it successfully connected about 6,000 customers to its grid early Monday, after a week of relying on temporary diesel generators in the Richmond following a fire at the utility’s downtown substation.
Residents in the Richmond District complained about deafening noise from the seven 2-megawatt generators that were deployed at 24th Avenue and Balboa Street to maintain service during repairs to the substation at Eighth and Mission streets.
Switching back to the grid required a planned outage that began at 11:48 p.m. Sunday and lasted about 15 minutes, PG&E spokesman Matt Nauman said in emails to The Standard.
“The Richmond has been so patient as PG&E fully restores power to the city,” District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan wrote to constituents. “For the last few days we have also had to deal with the deafening noise of generators supplementing our neighborhood’s power.”
District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong posted to social media (opens in new tab) to alert his affected residents as well, acknowledging that “the past week has been frustrating for many, and I truly appreciate our Sunset neighbors’ patience and understanding. My office will continue to share updates as we receive them.”
Though the generators were turned off, they will remain in place and may be needed as additional repairs are made, PG&E said.
“Extensive repairs are ongoing, and we are developing a plan to return the system to full service in the coming days,” Nauman said. “For now, the temporary generators at 24th Avenue and Balboa Street will remain at their current location to potentially assist with the final phase of restoration.”
PG&E is offering compensation to affected residents, including hotel accommodations with valet parking and up to $200 per day per family for food costs. Customers who did not relocate can receive expedited claims processing for $1,000.
Through Thursday, 38 customers had used hotel accommodations and six had filed claims, Chan said.
The utility said it would coordinate with city officials on future planned outages and continue notifying customers in advance of any work that may result in service interruptions.