Update, 4:45 p.m. PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said Tuesday’s outage, at its peak, affected about 38,000 customers, 29,000 of whom were in Berkeley. The remaining outages affected people in surrounding cities.
“We are still investigating the exact cause but we do know that the outage originated at a substation in Berkeley,” she said. Power went out at about 1:45 p.m. and was restored by about 3 p.m.
Sarkissian said PG&E apologizes for the inconvenience and thanked customers for their patience as crews worked to restore power.
“Our focus is always on restoring our customers safely and as quickly as possible,” she said.
Update, 3:27 p.m. The power outage appears to be resolved in Berkeley, according to PG&E’s outage map.
Update, 2:55 p.m. Several readers in North and South Berkeley are reporting that power has come back on.
It’s reportedly back on in some homes in North Berkeley, near Solano, and in the Halcyon neighborhood in South Berkeley around Telegraph and Ashby avenues. Reports local resident Timothy Craven, on Twitter: “Traffic lights have power once again at Univ. & MLK.”
Berkeleyside is still waiting to hear from PG&E and will keep this post updated.
Update, 2:35 p.m. According to PGE’s power outage map, the current outage in Berkeley began at 1:47 p.m. and was due to “Planned maintenance in the area.”
Currently, more than 25,000 PG&E customers are said to be without power.
The larger outage extending up to Richmond no longer appears on the map.
Update, 2:30 p.m. The outage map lists numerous outages in Berkeley. From the west, a large outage extending down from Richmond is affecting more than 12,000 people; an overlapping outage covering North Berkeley, central Berkeley and downtown Berkeley is affecting about 7,000 people; an outage within both of those areas is affecting about 1,500 people; an outage over and surrounding UC Berkeley is affecting about 3,200 people; and an outage in the Southside neighborhood is affecting about 1,100 people. There are also many smaller outages scattered around Berkeley, according to the map.
According to the outage map, power is expected to be restored by 4:30 p.m.
Original story, 2:20 p.m. PG&E is reporting that thousands are without power in Berkeley as of about 1:45 p.m.
Broad swaths of North and West Berkeley, as well as downtown, the UC Berkeley campus and the Southside neighborhood, appear to be affected.
Berkeleyside has called PG&E and will update this story as more information is made available.
Local residents on Twitter have been alerting Berkeleyside to outages around town. One local resident said Berkeley City College was evacuated due to the power outage. Said another, power has been out at Sixth Street and Bancroft Way for about 30 minutes. Another said power is out east of San Pablo Avenue, and all the way to Alcatraz and Telegraph.
It appears from PG&E’s outage map that more than 10,000 people may be without power in Berkeley due to numerous outages that extend up into Richmond.
See the outage map for updates, and check back here for more information.
Keep an eye on our Twitter feed for updates. Let us know in the comments below what you’re experiencing.
