A Tesla Megapack battery caught hearth this morning on the native utility firm PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California, as reported by native information stations KSBW Motion Information 8 and KRON4.
The fireplace began at round 1:30AM this morning, in accordance with PG&E’s operations comm supervisor, Jeff Smith. Smith tells The Verge that PG&E is working with hearth and emergency companies to offer sufficient area to securely cease the unfold of the fireplace. As of 1:55PM ET, it seems that the fireplace continues to be burning.
Caltrans confirmed the fire closed a section of Highway 1 as hearth crews deployed items to deal with the blaze and adopted up with another tweet noting that as of 1:20PM ET, a tough closure stays in impact. No accidents have been reported on the scene.
In accordance with Smith, the Tesla batteries have been mechanically disconnected from the grid because of security programs that have been in place that would detect issues.
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Photograph By Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle by way of Getty Pictures
A primary have a look at the scene of a hearth at a PG&E facility in Moss Touchdown. pic.twitter.com/89dCXB9Gut
— David Aguilar (@davidaguilar92) September 20, 2022
The Elkhorn battery facility, situated at Moss Touchdown, homes a 182.5-megawatt Tesla Megapack system initially introduced in 2019. The power is owned and operated by PG&E, however it was designed, constructed, and can also be maintained by each Tesla and the utility firm. Smith stated PG&E doesn’t count on the fires to trigger clients any outages.
California’s electrical grid is linked to a number of battery storage services, together with Vistra Moss Touchdown Power Storage Facility, a 400-megawatt setup throughout two buildings adjoining to Elkhorn. The upper energy operation homes batteries constructed by LG Power Options, and in accordance with Mercury Information, it was shut down earlier this yr because of at the very least two separate points with overheating batteries.
In July, Vistra restarted the services whereas working at 98 p.c of max capability “after implementing recognized corrective actions, together with associated to connectors within the water-based warmth suppression system.” It’s presently constructing a 350-MW Part III growth and talked about plans for a section 4 setup that may increase the location’s capability to 1,500 MW.
