From Supervisor Alan Wong’s office:

Supervisor Alan Wong convened an oversight hearing on Feb. 12 at the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee to examine PG&E’s response to the widespread power outages that left more than one third of San Francisco residents and businesses without electricity.

The outage, which began at PG&E’s Mission Substation during one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, caused cascading impacts across the city. Some residents were without power for nearly three days.

“This was not a minor inconvenience,” Wong said. “It was food spoiling, workers losing shifts, seniors sitting in the dark, small businesses bleeding revenue by the hour, and families scrambling to protect medically vulnerable loved ones. Our residents deserve answers, but more importantly, they deserve accountability.”

“One third of our City losing power for days was not a routine outage,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “It was a systemic failure with real human consequences. The December outages disrupted thousands of residents, families, seniors, and small businesses already operating on thin margins. As chair of this committee and as the supervisor representing the neighborhood where this incident originated, I’m focused on securing transparency, meaningful relief and measurable commitments to prevent this from happening again. Our constituents deserve reliable infrastructure, clear communication, and a claims process that reflects the true cost of these disruptions.”

“What we learned in this hearing is that there are serious deficiencies in PG&E’s relationship with residents, business owners, and San Francisco’s public safety organizations that put the most vulnerable in the City at risk,” said District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who co-sponsored the hearing. “There was no plan to make sure that power restoration was equitable, the AI-driven restoration time estimates were not functional and the Fire Department had to use paper diagrams provided by PG&E to learn the layout of the Mission Substation in real time. We will continue to hold PG&E accountable for their actions and make sure there is an improved response to future outages.”

Wong also thanked co-sponsors Supervisor Connie Chan, Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, Supervisor Myrna Melgar, and Supervisor Danny Sauter for their partnership in advancing the hearing.

During the hearing, PG&E presented data on outage timelines, estimated restoration times, communications practices, automatic bill credits, hotel vouchers and claims processing. Wong pressed PG&E on discrepancies in restoration estimates, notification timing to city departments, language access, call center performance and whether relief amounts match documented losses.

Merchants and residents from across the City shared firsthand testimony about the real-world impact of the outages.

“When the power goes out, my freezers shut down and the ice cream melts. That’s weeks of inventory and revenue gone in hours,” said Sean Kim, Vice President of the Geary Boulevard Merchant Association and owner of Joe’s Ice Cream. “Small businesses need a claims process that is clear, fair, workable and reliable infrastructure so this does not keep happening.”

“My business was down for three days during peak holiday week. Those sales don’t come back later,” said Daniel Ramirez, representing the Sunset Merchants Association and owner of Smokin D’s BBQ SF. “The $2,500 credit is a start, but it doesn’t cover multi-day losses. We need a claims process that works the first time and timelines we can rely on.”

Residents also described deeply personal impacts.

“On the day of the outage, our home went completely dark and my husband’s breathing machine stopped working,” said Sarah Du, a District 4 resident. “He fell while trying to move through the house in the dark. I had to call an ambulance. He was hospitalized until January, then transferred to a nursing facility. He just returned home yesterday, but his condition has worsened significantly.”

Business owners described losing peak holiday revenue, paying wages while closed, discarding perishable inventory and navigating a claims process many characterized as complex and burdensome.

The Department of Emergency Management and the San Francisco Fire Department also testified regarding notification protocols, coordination gaps and operational challenges during the outage.

The item was continued to a future committee meeting to allow PG&E to return with written follow-up, updated data and specific commitments. A second hearing will focus on root causes and infrastructure improvements to prevent repeated outages.

San Francisco experienced multiple major outages within a short period. That level of disruption cannot become the new normal. The City will continue pressing for reliability, transparency, and meaningful accountability to ensure residents and small businesses are better protected in the future.