A Tesla Megapack battery caught hearth this morning at the neighborhood utility enterprise PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California, as described by nearby news stations KSBW Motion News 8 and KRON4.
The fireplace began at around 1:30AM this morning, in accordance to PG&E’s operations comm supervisor, Jeff Smith. No injuries have been noted at the scene.
All around 7PM PT / 10PM ET, the North County Fireplace Office and Monterey County Sheriff’s Business office lifted the advisory and reopened the roadways. In a tweet from the Community Information for Monterey County account, officers claimed on the Megapack battery hearth at the Elkhorn facility, indicating, “While the fire is considered completely controlled, smoke may possibly still occur in the spot for quite a few days.”
North County Fire Office and The Monterey County Sheriff’s Workplace have lifted the Shelter-In-Place Advisory and all Street Closures for the #MossLandingIncident. Even though the hearth is viewed as absolutely managed, smoke may possibly nonetheless happen in the area for many times. pic.twitter.com/nU5NOf1dih
— MontereyCoInfo (@MontereyCoInfo) September 21, 2022
Monterey County Sheriff’s Business office, North County Fire Defense District, and Pacific Fuel & Electric powered experienced issued a shelter-in-location advisory for close by spots, complete with an interactive map showing which parts are influenced and highway closures that lasted much more than 12 hours. Citizens had been requested to shut all windows and transform off ventilation methods thanks to the hazardous squander material incident brought on by the Tesla Megapack fireplace.
Caltrans confirmed the fire shut a part of Highway 1 as fire crews deployed models to take care of the blaze. The California Freeway Patrol tweeted at 4:29PM that the closure experienced been prolonged because of to air high-quality problems.
According to Smith, constructed-in protection systems worked as created, routinely disconnecting the Tesla batteries from the grid when the fire was detected.
Photograph By Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Pictures
A first appear at the scene of a fire at a PG&E facility in Moss Landing. pic.twitter.com/89dCXB9Gut
— David Aguilar (@davidaguilar92) September 20, 2022
The Elkhorn battery facility, located at Moss Landing, properties a 182.5-megawatt Tesla Megapack system originally announced in 2019. The facility is owned and operated by PG&E, but it was intended, constructed, and is also maintained by equally Tesla and the utility enterprise. Smith stated PG&E does not be expecting the fires to bring about consumers any outages.
California’s electric powered grid is linked to various battery storage facilities, which include Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, a 400-megawatt set up throughout two structures adjacent to Elkhorn. The increased electrical power procedure houses batteries designed by LG Strength Remedies, and according to Mercury News, it was shut down previously this calendar year owing to at the very least two separate concerns with overheating batteries.
In July, Vistra restarted the facilities while working at 98 per cent of max capability “after employing discovered corrective actions, like similar to connectors in the drinking water-based mostly heat suppression procedure.” It is currently constructing a 350-MW Section III growth and mentioned plans for a section four setup that would increase the site’s potential to 1,500 MW.
Update 4:55PM ET: Additional shelter-in-place advisory discover from Monterey County officers, and supplemental area coverage from KSBW Motion News 8.
Update 11:05PM ET: Current to notice advisory has been lifted, roads are reopened, and the fire is regarded as “fully controlled.”
