Sprinkler failure at Monterey County, California, battery storage facility

Stephanie Zappelli

Tribune (San Luis Obispo, California)

(TNS)

Jan. 17 – When a fire broke out at a battery plant in Moss Landing on Thursday evening, forcing an evacuation and creating a plume of smoke over Monterey County, Morro Bay residents watched the news and worried about what a similar incident could mean for their town if a battery plant were built here .

A 750-MW energy storage facility at Moss Landing caught fire Thursday afternoon, prompting the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents due to air quality concerns, Monterey County spokesman Nick Pasculli said.

He added that no one was injured as a result of the fire.

The plant is managed by the energy company Vistra Corp. based in Texas, which wants to build a similar battery plant in Morro Bay.

These plans were met with protests from the new community in Morro Bay on Friday.

The grassroots organization Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation made the decision on the 2024 Morro Bay ballot to block the battery plant, which passed with a nearly 60% vote.

The group said battery storage facilities are prone to catching fire and that their location in densely populated areas such as Morro Bay is unsafe.

The Moss Landing fire is everything Morro Bay residents have feared and wished could have been prevented, group co-founder Barry Branin told The Tribune.

“Everyone is shocked and concerned,” Branin said on behalf of Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation. “These batteries need to be located somewhere else – away from the ocean and away from people.”

Vistra did not respond to The Tribune’s requests for comment, but a company spokesman commented on the fire during a news conference Friday in Monterey County.

“Safety is Vistra’s top priority,” said company spokesman Brad Watson. “Our company takes what happened last night very seriously, and we feel the pain today because we know that, above all, it has impacted and disrupted the lives of people living near our facility, our neighbors, friends and businesses, and for that We sincerely apologize.”

Moss Landing fire forces evacuation

The Vistra facility caught fire at 3 p.m. Thursday, prompting the evacuation of about 1,200 nearby residents from the 7,600-acre area due to air quality concerns, Monterey County spokesman Nick Pasculli said at a press conference Friday.

The fire was brought under control in the concrete building that houses 300 megawatt batteries.

North Monterey County Fire Protection District Chief Joel Mendonza said the fire suppression system failed during the fire, allowing flames to spread inside the building.

“No extinguishing action is being taken and the fire has been allowed to burn itself out,” a news release from the City of Morro Bay said.

According to Mendoza, the fire was at its worst between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. He added that by Friday morning the fire had consumed about 5% of the area.

“We have very little active flame. Very few combustion products are emitted into the atmosphere,” he said.

Initial air quality reports showed the fire did not release a toxic chemical called hydrogen fluoride, but the fire department did not share whether the fire released other chemicals.

The California Highway Patrol closed six roads around the facility, including Highway 1, said CHP spokesman Nicholas King.

At Friday’s press conference, the evacuation order was still in effect.

“It’s best to describe this as a worst-case scenario,” said Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church. “This is really a wake-up call for this industry and if we are going to continue to implement sustainable energy, we need to have safe battery systems.”

He called for an independent investigation into the cause of the fire and for better safety protocols for battery storage facilities at the local, state, federal and private levels.

“I have been assured personally – and I know this from other district officials as well – that this will not happen, safety protocols are in place,” Church said. “Well, of course it didn’t work out. “I think it just goes to show that no one really knows what we’re dealing with in this technology.”

This fire was not the first incident at the facility.

In 2021, batteries overheated at the battery factory. The incident did not cause a fire, but forced Vistra to temporarily close the facility.

There was also a fire in 2022 at Tesla’s Elkhorn Energy battery warehouse, which is also located in Moss Landing but not owned by Vistra. The incident report shows the North County Fire Protection District closed Highway 1 while firefighters extinguished the fire.

Assemblymember Dawn Addis and her staff are developing an action plan to address the incident, and she will do everything in her power to prevent another battery fire on the Central Coast, she told The Tribune on Friday.

“We need to know how this happened, why it happened and who could have prevented it and why they didn’t,” said Addis, whose district stretches from Santa Cruz to SLO County and includes both Moss Landing and Morro Bay . “The community here needs to know that their needs will be met, especially when it comes to safety.”

“Battery energy storage systems exist because we need climate solutions, and these solutions must not pose a risk to human health,” she added.

Morro Bay responds to the Moss Landing fire

Vistra originally submitted an application to the City of Morro Bay in 2021 to build a battery plant on the site of the retired Morro Bay Power Plant.

Then in October, Vistra withdrew its application from the city and announced plans to seek approval from the California Energy Commission.

The California Energy Commission and Coastal Commission can bypass local zoning laws to approve large renewable energy projects like Vistra’s proposed battery plant.

Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation hopes the California Energy Commission and Coastal Commission will listen to Morro Bay voters and kill the battery power project — especially after the Moss Landing fire, Branin said.

They fear a fire at the facility will threaten the safety of nearby homes and Morro Bay High School.

“Our citizens are very concerned, very concerned about the state pushing this issue,” Branin said. “Pressures for California to meet battery goals on short notice without reasonable understanding do not appear to be working and should be looked at closely.”

City officials will provide an update on the Moss Landing fire at the next City Council meeting on Jan. 28, according to a press release Friday.

The council will also consider issuing an emergency ordinance that would suspend the city’s ability to consider permits for new battery factories for up to two years. However, this will not prevent the California Coastal Commission and Energy Commission from approving the project.

“Since Vistra also owns the former Morro Bay Power Plant site and has proposed a similar battery energy storage project in our city, this situation is particularly important to us,” the city said in a press release Friday.

This story was originally published on January 17, 2025 at 3:54 p.m.

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