Massive power outage in San Diego/Orange County/Tijuana/Parts of AZ

From AZ Central and LATimes comes informtion about a large swath of San Diego County that lost power Thursday afternoon as officials investigated the cause of the outage. Residents reported power being out across the city of San Diego as well as suburbs such as Oceanside and Chula Vista.

Sheriff’s officials told Fox 5 San Diego that many of its substations were without power. Utility officials are trying to determine what caused the outage. There were also reports that parts of Orange County lost power.

Police spokeswoman Andra Brown said Thursday that 13 police stations were without power but were able to continue operating and taking 911 calls by using generators. She says power is out across San Diego County. It wasn’t immediately known how many people were without power or what the cause was.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. officials did not immediately respond to phone message.

Fox5SanDiego reports that authorities said power was out in El Centro in Imperial County. KSWT-TV reported that power was out in Yuma, Ariz., although Phoenix had power.

Mexican television reported that power was out in Baja California as far south as Ensenada.

The San Diego Trolley is without power. There are reports of people trapped in elevators in downtown San Diego.

All outbound flights have been canceled at Lindbergh Field, but inbound planes are being allowed to land, airport officials said. The FAA said that regional air traffic controllers are working on backup generators.

10News reports that San Diego Gas & Electric crews are trying to determine the cause of the outage, which has affected various cities around the county, from the South Bay to downtown, to cities in the North County and into areas as far east as El Centro. SDG&E representatives say they are looking into the issue and currently do not know what caused the outages.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department officials are urging residents to stay indoors and to limit phone use.

Parts of Mexico’s Baja California state were also without power, the Civil Protection Department there said, adding that authorities there were working to fix a problem at a hydroelectric plant. San Diego County had activated its emergency operations center as officials tried to learn more about the blackout, county spokesman Michael Workman said.

“This is crazy, gridlock everywhere,” Brian Korhummel told CNN’s iReport.

Officials call on residents to limit landline and cell phone use. Ham radio operator tells KOGO that Cochella and Salton Sea power plants have gone down.

An SDG&E spokesman said just before 5 p.m. that the outage could last into Friday after a “large switching station” in Arizona was knocked out. A “cascading event” overwhelmed the system, leading to “too many outages in to many places,” he said. The Escondido and Otay Mesa power plans were to be brought online first, “working from the inside out.” Many radio stations are out

“We don’t know what happened to the line, all we know is that the line is out. We don’t know exactly why it went out. We have no indication that there is an act of terroriusm at this time.”

A breakdown in the Rosarito thermoelectric seems to cause a widespread blackout in San Diego, Tijuana, Mexicali, Tecate, Rosarito and Ensenada that was presented at the edge of 15:45 pm today . According to the Tijuana Fire Director Carlos Martinez, it is assumed that the heating of thermal turbines in Rosarito, which provides electricity throughout the state and part of San Diego, was the reason for the problem. So far authorities have not given an official response from the reasons for the widespread blackout.

The Associated Press reports that 13 police stations in San Diego were without power but were able to continue operating and taking 911 calls by using generators.

SDG&E reported approximately 1.4 million customers are without power in California, Arizona and Mexico.

The Associated Press reports that 13 police stations in San Diego were without power but were able to continue operating and taking 911 calls by using generators.

SDG&E reported approximately 1.4 million customers are without power in California, Arizona and Mexico.

At a late afternoon news conference, a spokesman said that the outage started with a problem on a transmission line in Arizona. That caused a sequence of events that shut down both generators at San Onofre Nuclear Power Station .  The other two  main power supplies to the region, a transmission line from the north and another from the east, were also down, the spokesman said.

The California Independent System Operator issued this statement (via City News Service):

The California Independent System Operator Corporation (ISO) issued a transmission emergency after a major system disturbance occurred between Arizona and Southern California and caused all of San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and a small portion of Southern California Edison customers to lose power.The outage was triggered after a 500-kilovolt (kV) high-voltage line from Arizona to California tripped out of service. The transmission outage cut the flow of imported power into the most southern portion of California, resulting in wide-spread outages in the region.

The ISO is coordinating with SDG&E as well as neighboring utilities including Southern California (Edison) and utilities in Arizona and Mexico, during restoration of service, which is being managed by SDG&E.