Tesla Megapack battery caught fire at PG&E substation in California
At least one Tesla Megapack caught fire early Tuesday morning at the energy storage facility operated by utility PG&E in Monterey, California.
As of late Tuesday morning, there were no power outages for PG&E customers, nor any injuries to on-site personnel due to the fire, according to PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith. The California utility became aware of the fire at 1:30 a.m. on September 20, 2022, Smith said in an e-mail.
PG&E had commissioned the 182.5-megawatt (MW) Tesla Megapack system, known as the Elkhorn Battery at Moss Landing, in April this year.
Gigantic batteries like the Megapack, as well as those manufactured by ABB and Northvolt, enable grid operators to move extra capacity between counties or states, and ensure that power from intermittent sources can be stored and used when demand is higher, or when there are unplanned outages in a transmission network.
The fires in the energy storage systems at Moss Landing are reminiscent of incidents involving Tesla Megapacks in Australia. They also underscore the challenges of adopting new technology to improve the efficiency of the power grid, and to make greater use of electricity from intermittent, renewable resources like wind and solar.
