A fire at a substation in Monterey, California, operated by Pacific Power & Light (PG&E), was caused by a Tesla Megapack. By late Tuesday morning, Pacific Power & Light had no power outages, customers were not affected and no one was injured at the site.
In April, Pacific Watt Power commissioned the 182.5MW Tesla Megapack system in Moss Landing, California, a project called Elkhorn Battery.
Megapack is an oversized battery that is similar to energy storage systems made by companies such as ABB and Northvolt, which are used by grid operators to transfer excess power between counties or states, and which can also store intermittent power and discharge it when demand increases, or when the grid goes down.
Tesla Megapacks have also had incidents in Australia, suggesting that there are challenges to using new technologies to improve grid efficiency.
There are two other energy storage projects in Moss Landing, one operated by Pacific Watt Power and one operated by Vista Texas, whose facilities were not affected by the fire, a Vista spokesman said. It should be noted that there have been two previous overheating incidents at the Vista facility in Moss Landing.
After the fire, California closed California Highway 1 (Highway 1) for several hours as traffic changed direction and moved away from the fire.
A Pacific Power & Light spokesperson said, “When the problem was discovered, the safety system functioned properly as designed and it automatically disconnected the battery storage facility from the grid.”
Facilities where fires occur
Highway 1 closed due to fire
