For the sixth time in less than a month, residents of San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood were hit with a power outage Friday, infuriating thousands who have endured weeks of repeated blackouts.
An outage map from Pacific Gas & Electric Company shows about 3,400 customers without power Friday afternoon in the Outer Richmond and Sea Cliff neighborhoods. It was just the latest affront since a fire at a PG&E substation in SoMa blackened a third of the city Dec. 20.
Lauren Mufarreh, who lives in the Outer Richmond, said PG&E informed her that power would be restored by 8 p.m. Friday before moving the time back to 5:15 p.m. By now, she knows to take the utility company’s estimates with a grain of salt. She and her neighbors, many whom were without electricity for days throughout the holiday season, have experienced a series of incorrect restoration timelines.
“Here we go again,” said Mufarreh, who counted six outages since Dec. 20. “These false predictions make it really tough. … I work from home, so it’s kind of a problem.”
Following the Dec. 20 blackout, PG&E relied on temporary diesel generators to bring power to the Richmond, drawing criticism for creating a “deafening noise.”
The energy giant’s handling of the blackouts has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, with some renewing calls for the city to take over the company’s assets. State Sen. Scott Wiener said he would soon introduce legislation for San Francisco and other cities to break up with PG&E and form publicly owned utilities.
Mufarreh said she received a $200 stipend from the company for her troubles. But she fears the help won’t stretch far enough for homeowners and business owners whose losses dwarf her own.
Newly appointed Supervisor Alan Wong said after the Dec. 20 outage that he planned to call for a hearing to demand answers from the energy giant. Since then, blackouts have continued.
PG&E said in a statement Friday that its employees were “on the scene” working to resolve the outage.
