Service Reported After 38K PG&E Customers in Oakland, East Bay Lose Power

Update:

About 38,000 PG&E customers who lost power in the East Bay this afternoon have had their service restored, according to a utility spokeswoman. The outage started around 1:45 p.m. and the power came back on just before 3 p.m., PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said.

“We are still investigating the exact cause but we do know that the outage originated at a substation in Berkeley,” Sarkissian said.

The outage also affected customers in Albany, El Cerrito, Kensington, Oakland, Richmond and San Pablo, she said. The Downtown Berkeley BART station was shut down temporarily because of the outage, during which trains were not stopping at the station. BART officials said the station has since reopened and that normal service has resumed.

Berkeley City College also shut down temporarily this afternoon, but reopened as of 3:30 p.m. Berkeley police said the outage affected several intersections, disabling stoplights for some time. Police advise the public to exercise caution when approaching an uncontrolled intersection and to treat it like a four-way stop.

Original Story:

BART’s Downtown Berkeley station closed this afternoon because of a power outage in the area, BART officials said. BART reported the closure of the station shortly after 2:15 p.m. and agency spokeswoman Alicia Trost said trains are not stopping at the station until a backup generator is delivered there. PG&E officials were not immediately available to comment on the outage, but a map of outages on the utility’s website shows more than 14,900 customers are without power in the area.

By Bay City News

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