A Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) Megapack battery installed at utility PG&E Corporation’s (NYSE:PCG) California storage facility caught fire early on Tuesday, said reports. At the time of writing, the fire had been "fully controlled."
What Happened: According to a report in Tech Crunch, PG&E said that around 1:30 a.m. it became aware of a fire in one Tesla Megapack at the Elkhorn Battery Storage in Moss Landing, Monterey County, California. Following the incident, the facility was disconnected from the grid to stop the spread of the fire and provide a safe area for emergency response personnel, added the report.
The fire also led to the shutting down of a section of Highway 1 and the issuing of a shelter-in-place order from the county sheriff’s office.
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The North County Fire Department and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office lifted the advisory and reopened the roads by 10 p.m. ET, according to a tweet by the county's Twitter handle.
"While the fire is considered fully controlled, smoke may still occur in the area for several days," the tweet added.
North County Fire Department and The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office have lifted the Shelter-In-Place Advisory and all Road Closures for the #MossLandingIncident. While the fire is considered fully controlled, smoke may still occur in the area for several days. pic.twitter.com/nU5NOf1dih
— MontereyCoInfo (@MontereyCoInfo) September 21, 2022
PG&E confirmed that the safety systems worked as designed and there were no on-site injuries, Tech Crunch said, citing a statement from the utility. It also reportedly ruled out electrical outages for customers.
PG&E had commissioned the 182.5-megawatt Tesla Megapack battery storage system, aka Elkhorn Battery Storage System, or EBSS, at the Moss Landing electric substation in April. The EBSS included 256 Tesla Megapack battery units. It's maintained by both PG&E and Tesla and is owned and operated by the former. It has the capacity to store and dispatch up to 730 MW hours of energy to the electrical grid at a maximum rate of 182.5 MW for up to four hours during periods of high demand.
Why It's Important: Another energy storage facility owned by Vistra at Moss Landing saw two fire accidents within a span of five months — once in September 2021 and then again in February this year.
Tesla faced a setback in Australia in July 2022 when a fire broke out during the testing of its megapack at the Victorian Big Battery site.
Price Action: Tesla closed Tuesday's session at $308.73, down 0.11%, according to Benzinga Pro data.
