PG&E planned outages in SF for substation repairs this week forcing some businesses to close

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco PG&E customers are bracing for two planned power outages.

The utility says the work will happen in two waves.

The first shutoff will happen overnight Monday, affecting about 3,600 customers in the Civic Center area. It could last up to 12 hours, with power expected to be restored by noon. Then, at midnight Tuesday, about 14,000 people in the Richmond District will lose power. That shutoff is expected to last two hours.

There was a Sunday brunch rush at Sam's Restaurant on Market Street. Its sister café, Haru, is next door. Both eateries are bracing for a planned PG&E power outage.

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"At least they gave us a heads up this time," said Manager Gaby Gomez.

Gomez said she has no choice but to close both restaurants on Monday.

"It's a day of sales we're losing, but at the same time, I don't want to take the risk of what happened last time when we were in the middle of operations and power shut off and we had to throw away product. Better safe than sorry," Gomez said.

Gaby said back in December, the power was out around the Civic Center for three days.

MORE: SF's Sunset District business owners meet with PG&E after weeks of blackouts

Johnny Denham, who's disabled, is worried the elevator won't work at his residential hotel.

"I have to wait in the lobby until it comes back on. I'm not going to be hopping or crawling upstairs," Denham said.

PG&E is planning the outages so it can finish repairs and testing of the equipment at its Mission substation, where a fire on Dec. 20 resulted in a third of the city losing power for up to 72 hours. Since the outage, PG&E has been using temporary generators to keep customers in service.

On Tuesday, another outage is planned by PG&E in the Richmond District.

MORE: San Francisco power outage renews city's interest to acquire PG&E's assets for public power system

"I feel that planned is better than unplanned, I appreciate being told ahead of time, and if it fixes it, I feel great about it," said Aliya Bacal Peterson.

Others, like Vardgas Kazaryan at Royal Market and Bakery, are uneasy. The December outages cost him the loss of food and refrigeration equipment.

"I'm scared that's it. I'm losing customers. I can't fight PG&E," Kazaryan said.

In a statement, PG&E said in part: "When we return to normal operations, we expect this will help avoid some of the brief outages that customers have experienced over the last couple of weeks... we know these outages have been frustrating."

Some traffic lights may not be operating on Monday and Tuesday. The city reminds drivers to treat them as a four-way stop.