A large power outage was impacting the morning commute and potentially making for an early start to the weekend for some Financial District workers. PG&E initially said that 13,000 customers were affected, but they revised that to say that 95,000 were affected, as ABC 7 reports.

Additionally, a large PG&E substation on Larkin Street was on fire, though PG&E would not confirm that that was the cause of the outage.

The outage was affecting traffic lights, all electrified Muni service, and BART, and many downtown businesses were closed as a result.

The Examiner reports that the outage began at 9 a.m. and was affecting "at least" the Financial District, the Richmond District, Pacific Heights, the Marina and parts of the Western Addition.

As of 9:15 a.m., BART announced that Montgomery Station was closed, and trains would not be stopping there.


Creepily, a simultaneous power outage in midtown Manhattan Friday morning shut down subway service for much of the city.

Update: KRON 4's Maureen Kelly posted a picture showing what appears to be smoke coming out of the PG&E substation on Larkin Street, and there is a fire truck parked outside.


The local internet provider Monkey Brains has put out this map of neighborhoods affected by the outage, which is roughly the entire northern third of the city (and looks like way more than the 13,000 customers PG&E had initially said.


Much of the Financial District and Union Square is reportedly blacked out and a bit chaotic, with no traffic lights functioning.


And the outage is affecting electrified Muni trolley buses as well, and all cable car lines are currently shut down.

Update 2: PG&E had hoped to have power restored by 1 p.m., however as of about 1:15 they say that they only have power back on for 15,000 customers, with some 80,000 left to go. The current estimate for getting the entire city up and running again is 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, it took a long time for PG&E to update its outage map online this morning, and CBS 5 has confirmed with the utility that the substation fire at 600 Larkin Street was the "primary source" of the outage. That fire was under control as of 10:50 a.m.

The fire department reportedly responded to 20 calls of people stuck in elevators this morning as a result of the outage.

BART was able to reopen Montgomery Station around 11:30 a.m., thanks to a generator.

Also, the SFPD wants to clarify that this outage was not an act of terrorism.