Systemic Grid
Failure
TREASURE ISLAND RESIDENTS CONTINUE TO GRAPPLE WITH A PERSISTENT POWER OUTAGE CRISIS. SINCE 1997, THEY HAVE ENDURED MORE THAN 538 POWER OUTAGES, WHICH TRANSLATES TO AN OUTAGE EVERY 2-3 WEEKS. ALARMINGLY, THIS RATE IS FOUR TIMES HIGHER THAN THE CITYWIDE AVERAGE IN SAN FRANCISCO, HIGHLIGHTING A SIGNIFICANT DISPARITY IN THE FREQUENCY OF POWER DISRUPTIONS EXPERIENCED BY TREASURE ISLAND INHABITANTS.
Annual Outage Count
(2015-2026) Documented failure events per year.
Annual Gas Outage Count
(2019-present) Documented gas events. 2020–21 = no AlertSF gas alert on record; full pre-2023 archive pending TIDA/SFPUC CPRA.
Major Incident Log
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Planned power outage at the YBI Coast Guard & Coast Guard Quarters for switchgear cabinet replacement. Est. 0-50 units affected. Scheduled 09:00-14:00; grid power restored earlier than estimated. Cause: maintenance.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI. Affected area: Job Corps, Restaurant, and Legacy Housing. Estimated impact: 400–500 housing units. PUC crews on scene throughout the morning and early afternoon; gas service restored at approximately 1:12 PM PT the same day.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Power Outage on Treasure Island, Power Outage on Yerba Buena Island. Affected area: All of Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. Impact: 500 or more units out of power, not all housing is down. Cause: Unknown. PUC crews en-route.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI. Cause: leaking valve on 4th and Ave D. Affected area: All housing, Job Corp, Aracelis, the Galic, and Winery. PUC crews provided continuous status updates from 11:52 AM PT (March 10) through restoration at 1:23 AM PT (March 11). Recurrence pattern: same intersection (4th & Ave D) was a contributing area in the February 2026 event.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI. Initial report at 351 Ave H between 4th and 5th. Crews subsequently traced the issue to 4th and Ave D — the same area implicated in the March 2026 leaking-valve event. Estimated impact: 0–50 housing units. Crews exited by 4:31 PM PT.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: 5th power outage of 2026. Outage affecting Halibut Ct, Job Corps, and TI waste water facilities. Estimated impact: 0–50 housing units. Cause unknown. PUC crews responded and grid power was restored by approximately 8:44 PM. Crews have exited. No further updates planned. Alert prepared by Ian Anonuevo, SFPUC Power Enterprise.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: 4th power outage of 2026. Bird strike on 4th between Ave M and N caused the outage, affecting the south end of the island including DOL, Ave D, H, I, M, 4th & 9th St, Chinook Ct, Flounder Ct, Croaker St, and Sturgeon St. Estimated impact: 100–200 housing units. PUC crews responded and grid power has been restored. Crews have exited. No further updates planned. Alert prepared by Chang Ly, SFPUC Power Enterprise.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Power outage on south end of Treasure Island affecting 100-200 housing units. Areas impacted include DOL, Ave D, H, I, M, 4th and 9th St, Chinook Ct, Flounder Ct, and Sturgeon St. PUC crews responded and identified a downed line as the cause. Crews repaired/replaced the downed line and grid power was restored by approximately 12:11 AM on February 17. Alert prepared by Ian Anonuevo, SFPUC Power Enterprise.
Initial alert at 11:16 PM reported a Legacy Circuit failure impacting 0-50 units on the southern side. Crews arrived by 1:21 AM and completed restoration, returning power to both market and residential customers after 2 hours 5 minutes of downtime. Investigation notes credit patrol response for confirming no additional faults remain on the Legacy Circuit.
Scheduled maintenance outage for cable replacement. PUC crews performed work from 8:00 AM to 5:50 PM. Grid power fully restored by evening. Impacted 0-50 housing units.
Initially reported as voltage spike at 1135 Mason Ct, investigation revealed transformer equipment failure affecting 1131 and 1135 Mason St. PUC crews replaced failed transformer and restored power. Impacted 0-50 housing units.
Maintenance outage to finish wiring accessories in transformer at Buildings 201, 202, and 811 Ave I. Initially impacted 50-100 housing units. PUC crews on scene, power restored by 9:00 AM with work completed. Final impact: 0-50 units.
Transformer failure affecting Buildings 201, 202, and parts of Avenue H and I. Failed transformer required replacement. Power was restored to TI market by 1:01 PM, but transformer replacement work continues with no ETA for completion. Impacted 0-50 housing units. Three-stage response: crews en-route (10:42 AM), on-scene with partial restoration (1:01 PM), ongoing repairs with no residents without power but no completion timeline (2:58 PM). Power fully restored at 11:30 PM after transformer replacement completed.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI. Affected area: Ave H, TI Job Corps, and Legacy Housing. PUC crews on scene; gas service restored at 9:03 PM PT the same evening.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Planned outage due to PG&E conducting maintenance on the 115 kV line at the Port of Oakland, which feeds electricity to both islands. All customers affected — 400–500 housing units impacted. Both islands placed on backup 2MW generator power from approximately 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. Work Order 9105747, supervised by Ryan Dunbar (RDUNBAR), Crew PE2. Planned labor: $6,857.05. Actual labor: $3,963.00 across 5 crew members (RDUNBAR, MMENIOLAS, JSYSE, JCOLE, VHONG) working premium/overtime hours Oct 24–27. Hetch Hetchy Power customers including Maceo May, The Bristol, and Isle House Apartments affected. Schedule adjusted from original PG&E request. Alerts prepared by Ryan Dunbar, SFPUC Power Enterprise. Obtained via CPRA/Sunshine request Case 25-8483.
Read Full ReportSFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Planned outage for HV maintenance and underground cable work at Gateview Ave and Avenue B (Work Order 9091320, Case 25-7677). Initially scoped to 1301–1310 Gateview and 901/905 Ave B, the outage expanded to all of Gateview Ave by afternoon. 50–100 housing units impacted. HV team performed underground cable infrastructure replacement including load-break elbows, bushing inserts, junction brackets, and ground rods. At 3:19 PM, a brief additional outage (15–20 min) was required to reconnect to grid power. Grid power fully restored at 3:34 PM. Total project cost: $20,876 ($9,722 labor across 7 crew members over multiple days, $11,154 in materials). Work continued through October 25–26 for final connections. Related to WO 8356467 (VIP Powerline routine maintenance). Alerts prepared by Chang Ly and Ian Anonuevo, SFPUC Power Enterprise.
Read Full ReportFailed 37.5 KVA transformer (TX-155) at Building 1307 triggered a 38-hour outage affecting 30–100 units (Work Order 9016650). SFPUC crews were stalled for 9.5 hours when city computers blocked a firmware update for broken testing equipment. Workers timed out at 9 PM on Aug 17 and left residents on generator power overnight. Root cause linked to a known-repeat-failure underground cable — the same section that failed in December 2024.
Read Full ReportSFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI — recurrence at the Northwest area, 13th Street and Ave. D. Three days after the four-day February 14–18 NW TI gas outage was declared restored, the same area lost service again. Crews repaired and confirmed restoration at 3:37 PM PT the same day. AlertSF text alert was NOT sent for this event (confirmed by SFPUC External Affairs).
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI. Affected area: the entire Northwest portion of Treasure Island, starting at the corner of 13th and Ave. D. Approximately 400 housing units impacted; ~80% of homes lost hot water for the duration. Multi-day outage with status updates from PUC crews "Have exited," "En-route," and "On scene" across Feb 16–18 PT before final restoration on Feb 18 at 11:14 AM PT. This event ran in parallel with the Valentine's Day multi-utility collapse (cf. Major Incident Log id #1) and is the longest documented gas outage in this dataset.
Valentine's Day multi-utility collapse: Combined gas leak and electrical equipment failures created a cascading crisis affecting ~400 units (80% of homes). Started with gas leak on Feb 14 at 2:13 AM, expanded to 200+ units on Feb 16, fully restored Feb 18 at 11:14 AM. Residents left without heat, hot water, or ability to cook for four days in winter.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Leak on TI at 1111 Keppler Ct. Unit C. Crews expanded the affected area to 1109, 1111, 1113, 1115, and 1117 Keppler CT. Estimated impact: 0–50 housing units. Crews exited by 2:13 AM PT. Coincided with the start of the Valentine's Day multi-utility collapse.
Massive underground cable failure. Crews exhausted personnel supply, work paused overnight leaving 42 units in darkness.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI at 1237 North Point Treasure Island. Estimated impact: 0–50 housing units. PUC crews tracked through "En-route" → "On scene" → "Have exited" status updates from 1:18 PM PT (April 5) through 6:18 PM PT the same evening.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: combined event — Power Outage on Treasure Island and Natural Gas Outage on TI at 1223 Mariner Dr Units A–F. Both grid power and natural gas service were restored the same afternoon at 1:38 PM PT. Estimated impact: 0–50 housing units.
SFPUC Power Enterprise Alert: Natural Gas Outage on TI. Affected buildings: 1318 through 1301 Avenue B and 901–905 & 1306 Gateview Ave. Alert prepared by Hieu Doan, SFPUC Power Enterprise. Gas service restored at 3:47 PM PT the same afternoon. This is the earliest documented Natural Gas event in the SFPUC alert archive available to this site.
Resident-reported natural-gas outage on Treasure Island, first reported around 5:00 PM PST on January 11, 2022. The resident emailed SFPUC Power Enterprise, the Mayor's Office, the District 6 Supervisor, and the Department of Emergency Management asking for confirmation and a cause; no AlertSF text alert was issued for this event and the affected area, restoration time, and cause were not confirmed in writing. Predates the SFPUC Power Enterprise email-alert archive that supplies the 2023+ entries on this page.
Davis Substation feed failure. Generators failed mechanically and ran out of fuel, forcing intentional blackouts.
AlertSF / Everbridge text alert: "Gas Service Interruption on Treasure Island, near North Point Drive. Utility crews are on scene to repair and restore services." A follow-up "SERVICE RESTORED" alert was issued the same afternoon. This is the earliest documented Treasure Island natural-gas event on this site; it predates SFPUC's gas-specific Power Enterprise email-alert program (which begins May 2023) and was distributed only via the citywide AlertSF system.
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Governance
- Asset OwnerTIDA (Treasure Island Development Authority)
- OperatorSFPUC
- Infrastructure Age80+ Years — Built 1940s (Navy WWII Era), transferred to TIDA 1997
- Why this matters
Did an outage cost you money?
Spoiled food, a dead fridge, ruined medication, a damaged appliance, lost wages — you can make the City pay it back. File a Government Claim against San Francisco (and TIDA / SFPUC). Claims under $10,000 use a simple one-page form — no lawyer, no court.
You have 6 months from each outage to file (Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2). Larger losses can still be claimed.
Impact Report
Watch VideoWhy This Keeps Happening
The legal structures that make Treasure Island's grid crisis inevitable — not accidental.
Not a Neighborhood
Treasure Island is a former Navy base closed under BRAC. It's governed by TIDA, a special state-created authority — not a normal city department or neighborhood association. Residents live under a governance structure designed for base conversion, not community services.
No city department has standard oversight responsibility for TI's electrical grid.
Special Legal Vehicle
The Treasure Island Conversion Act of 1997 gave TIDA redevelopment-agency powers, bypassing normal city planning. When California dissolved all redevelopment agencies in 2012, TI's special authority survived — anchored in base-reuse and trust-land administration.
Infrastructure decisions follow project-conversion logic, not municipal utility standards.
Trust Land Shell Game
State statutes (SB 1873) allow public trust land to be freed from oversight and conveyed into private ownership via exchange agreements. Resources flow to new construction phases while older buildings stay in limbo.
Legacy housing on aging circuits gets last priority in every capital plan.
Developer-First Governance
Special Planning Code provisions (SEC. 249.52) let TIDA appeal Planning Commission decisions. IRFD/CFD financing districts and development agreements constrain normal civic accountability.
The entities building condos control the same authority responsible for your grid.
Tolled and Trapped
Residents face congestion tolls to enter and exit their own neighborhood — one of the only such communities in the US. A pre-existing community was never given a seat at the table when the toll was designed.
You can't even leave during an outage without paying for the privilege.
A community trapped on an island with a toll, no PG&E fallback, a grid built for warships, and governance structures designed to serve developers — not the families who live here.
Infrastructure of Neglect
SFPUC has full control over Treasure Island's electrical infrastructure—no PG&E involvement, pure municipal management. This pilot program for public power serves just 500 homes across 125 buildings, less than 0.1% of San Francisco's population. Yet after decades of exclusive control, SFPUC has proven incapable of keeping the lights on reliably for even this tiny fraction.
2025: Year of Total Collapse
The numbers tell the story: 30 outages in 2025 alone, the highest count in a decade. February's Valentine's Day collapse was the breaking point—a combined gas and electrical failure left 400 units without heat, hot water, or power for four days in winter. June averaged one crisis notice every five days, with residents cycling between "planned outages" and emergency diesel generators. The infrastructure hasn't just failed; it's collapsed.
The Public Power Paradox
While SFPUC campaigns for PublicPowerSF to take over the entire city's grid (410,000 units), they can't manage electricity for 500 homes on an isolated island with no industrial load. Every flicker costs lives: insulin warms in dead fridges, medical devices fail, Wi-Fi drops during telehealth calls. This isn't just infrastructure failure—it's a betrayal of public trust at its most fundamental level.
New Leadership, Same Failures
Mayor Daniel Lurie promised a "no-nonsense rebuild" of essential services. Yet the blackouts continue, the diesel generators keep running, and residents still receive dueling notices from SFPUC and TIDA with no accountability. We've endured 538 documented disruptions in 25 years. The clock is ticking louder than any generator, and San Francisco's "innovation brand" rings hollow when seniors hunt for flashlight batteries while the city powers AI startups.
Corruption at the Core
The dysfunction runs deeper than aging infrastructure. Harlan Kelly, the former SFPUC General Manager, is now serving a four-year federal prison sentence after being convicted of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bank fraud in 2023. Kelly—the same official who oversaw Treasure Island's failing grid—accepted bribes from permit expediter Walter Wong in exchange for insider information on city contracts. His conviction is part of the broader Mohammed Nuru corruption scandal that exposed rot at the heart of San Francisco's public works infrastructure.
The Cover-Up Continues
When we submitted public records requests specifically seeking information about Harlan Kelly's involvement with Treasure Island, SFPUC suddenly invoked the "rule of reason" exemption—a provision they had never cited before. The timing was no coincidence. Our requests sought accountability for the very infrastructure failures Kelly oversaw, and the agency's response was to erect new barriers to transparency.
Despite invoking the rule of reason, SFPUC never fulfilled the request. They were legally obligated to provide responsive documents within a reasonable timeframe, yet nothing came. The exemption became not a legitimate legal tool but a shield to hide behind—protecting an agency whose former leader now sits in federal prison for corruption.
Transparency Denied
Seventy-five percent of our records requests sought nothing more than basic operational data—work orders, maintenance logs, and outage cause documentation. This is information we need to fulfill our volunteer role raising awareness and advocating for Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island residents. Instead of the transparency any accountable public utility would provide, we received obstruction.
The pattern is clear:
- Before Kelly corruption requests: Standard responses to public records requests
- After requesting Kelly/Treasure Island documents: Sudden invocation of "rule of reason"
- Result: Requests remain unfulfilled despite legal obligations
This reveals an agency culture that prioritizes protecting its own over serving residents. The same officials who cannot keep lights on for 500 homes are the ones deciding what information the public can access about why their power keeps failing—and about the convicted felon who ran the show. The 538 documented outages over 25 years aren't just infrastructure failures—they're symptoms of systemic corruption now proven in federal court, and an ongoing cover-up that continues to deny residents the transparency they deserve.
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