Power grid instability issues forced PG&E to cut electricity to more than 61,000 customers in Manteca, Tracy, and Lathrop on Thursday.

PG&E said around 4:30 p.m. it began de-energizing some customers in Stockton and Manteca, "in order to rebalance the grid."

The number of customers that were part of unplanned outages rose to 61,000 plus by 7:30 p.m.

An hour later at 8:30 p.m. it dropped to 44,464 before bouncing back up to 52,650 at 9:30 p.m.

Originally, automated PG&E calls at 7 p.m. advised customers that the power would be restored with two hours. Instead, the number of customers subjected to outages grew.

In Manteca as of 11:30 p.m., 24,163 households and businesses were still without power.

With nearly 28,000 household plus several thousand commercial and over users, that meant four-fifths of PG&E’s Manteca customers were without power as of 11:30 p.m.

The largest areas that had power restored as of 11:30 p.m. was most of the area bounded by Yosemite Avenue, Highway 99, the 120 Bypass, and South Main Street; the Woodward Park area; southwest Manteca; and the Airport Way corridor.

Some traffic signals in areas that lost power continued to operate, Many, however, didn’t creating confusion for drivers.

Tracy had 24,628 customers without power as of 11:30 p.m.

 PG&E had made some planned public safety outages in San Joaquin County when the urgent need developed that required the grid to be rebalanced.

Only 948 of the 61,000 plus outages were due to the utility's public safety power shutoff.