A fire broke out at PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery energy storage system in Moss Landing, California, on September 20.
PG&E told Bloomberg the fire involved a single Tesla Megapack. The battery storage facility in Monterey County was disconnected from the grid, and the incident has not triggered any blackouts, the utility said. No injuries have been reported.
At 8:30 a.m. PST, the North County Fire District said the fire was active but “de-escalating.” The department asked nearby residents to shelter in place. The fire also shut down a stretch of California Highway 1.
We have reached out to PG&E regarding this developing story and will provide updates when we have them.
The 182.5 MW energy storage system in Northern California was designed and constructed in a partnership between Tesla and PG&E. It became operational on April 18.
The system includes 256 Tesla Megapack battery units on 33 concrete slabs and has the capacity to store and dispatch up to 730 MWh of energy to the electrical grid at a maximum rate of 182.5 MW per hour during periods of high demand.
Known as the Elkhorn Battery because of its location in Monterey Bay’s Elkhorn Slough, the lithium-ion battery storage system was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2018 and by the Monterey County Planning commission in 2020.
Adjacent to Elkhorn Battery, a 400 MW battery facility owned by Vistra has suffered two overheating incidents since September 2021, both forcing partial temporary shutdowns.
