Tesla Megapack battery caught fire at PG&E substation in California

At slightest 1 Tesla Megapack caught occurrence aboriginal Tuesday greeting astatine the vigor retention installation operated by inferior PG&E successful Monterey, California.

As of precocious Tuesday morning, determination were nary powerfulness outages for PG&E customers, nor immoderate injuries to on-site unit owed to the fire, according to PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith. The California inferior became alert of the occurrence astatine 1:30 a.m. connected September 20, 2022, Smith said successful an e-mail.

The occurrence was not yet afloat extinguished earlier publication.

PG&E commissioned the 182.5-megawatt (MW) Tesla Megapack system, known arsenic the Elkhorn Battery astatine Moss Landing, successful April this year.

Gigantic batteries similar the Megapack, arsenic good arsenic those manufactured by ABB and Northvolt, alteration grid operators to determination other capableness betwixt counties oregon states, and guarantee that powerfulness from intermittent sources tin beryllium stored and utilized erstwhile request is higher, oregon erstwhile determination are unplanned outages successful a transmission network.

The fires successful the vigor retention systems astatine Moss Landing are reminiscent of incidents involving Tesla Megapacks in Australia. They besides underscore the challenges of adopting caller exertion to amended the ratio of the powerfulness grid, and to marque greater usage of energy from intermittent, renewable resources similar upwind and solar.

There are 2 chiseled vigor retention projects astatine Moss Landing successful Monterey. One is operated by PG&E and the different by Texas-based Vistra. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Vistra told CNBC their installation was not impacted by this event. However, the Vistra broadside of Moss Landing has experienced two overheating incidents successful the past.

California Highway Patrol closed a conception of Highway 1 and redirected postulation distant from the installation for hours pursuing the fire.

Following the fire, immoderate residents adjacent the Elkhorn Battery substation astatine Moss Landing were told to shelter successful place owed to emissions.

According to Richard Stedman, an aerial contamination power serviceman for the Monterey Bay Air Resources District (MBARD), lithium ion artillery fires tin emit toxic constituents, including hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid. MBARD did not person immoderate contiguous information astir aerial prime impacts from the Elkhorn Battery fire, helium said, but volition enactment with section authorities to survey the contented aft the occurrence has been afloat extinguished.

PG&E's Jeff Smith noted, "Safety systems astatine the installation worked arsenic designed erstwhile the contented was detected, and automatically disconnected the artillery retention installation from the electrical grid."

Correction: Previously, Vistra's vigor retention systems astatine the Moss Landing tract overheated.

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