Power slowly returns to San Francisco as crews tackle massive electrical outage

Power is gradually being restored to thousands of San Francisco homes and businesses that were without electricity Sunday morning, as crews worked overnight to fully restore service.

An outage map for Pacific Gas and Electric showed more than 20,000 customers remained without power as of 7:41 a.m. PST.

A pedestrian uses a flash light while crossing an intersection as power outages darken the streets, in San Francisco, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A pedestrian uses a flash light while crossing an intersection as power outages darken the streets, in San Francisco, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The outage began shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday and, at its peak, left 130,000 of the utility company’s customers in the dark.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management wrote on X Saturday that there were “significant transit disruptions” happening citywide and asked residents to avoid non-essential travel and treat downed traffic signals as four-way stops.

Fire officials said on social media that some of the blackouts were caused by a fire that broke out inside a PG&E substation at 8th and Mission streets.

Comment with Bubbles

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT

“The damage from the fire in our substation was significant and extensive and the repairs and safe restoration will be complex,” PG&E said on X Sunday morning. “At this time, we are unable to provide a precise timeframe for full restoration but will provide additional detail and information as our assessment and repair efforts continue.”