Power restored to South Bay after overnight blackout

GILROY, Calif. (KGO) -- By daybreak, PG&E had power restored to all of its South Bay customers, though some outages remain in the East Bay. Residents lost electricity in the triple digit heat on Monday when PG&E equipment failed due to heavy use.

Temperatures hit 109 in Gilroy on Monday. It has been 55 years since the Bay Area was hit with temperatures that high this time of year. And PG&E's equipment just couldn't take the heat, putting thousands in the dark.

Time lapse video showed the power outage creating a blackout in San Jose as the sun set.

About 12,000 customers lost power at one point in San Jose and Gilroy.

By 10 p.m. on Monday, 3,500 customers were without power.

Currently, over 800 customers are without power in the South Bay.

As of 5:20 a.m., about 74 customers in Gilroy and 26 customers in San Jose are experiencing outages, PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi said.

Additionally, 225 customers in parts of the East Bay, including Danville, Walnut Creek and Brentwood, are without power, Guidi said.

The outages began at about 5:30 p.m. on Monday and are due to a heat-related equipment failure. The heat-related outages had initially affected about 9,500 customers in the Bay Area.

Crews are working to repair the equipment and PG&E officials are hoping to have power fully restored to customers in all areas by midday.

"We had various equipment failures related to heat," Guidi said, explaining that transformers had overloaded due to high temperatures and heavy use.