PG&E tried to restart a battery plant over Monterey County officials' objections. It lasted less than a day
When a massive fire ignited in January at one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities, the neighbors demanded answers. They wanted to know what started the fire that smoldered for days, spewing toxic gas into the air and prompting evacuation warnings for 1,500 people.
Nearly five months later and with the fire's cause still unknown, Pacific Gas & Electric began reopening an adjacent battery site on Sunday, despite objections from local officials.
But the restart — which the utility company said was needed in order to meet summer energy demands — was called off almost as soon as it began.
On Sunday, workers who 'began methodically returning the batteries to service' discovered 'a clamp failure and coolant leak' in a Tesla Megapack battery unit on site, PG&E spokesman Paul Doherty said in a statement Monday.
'Out of an abundance of caution we are deferring the facility's return to service until a later date,' Doherty said.
The situation in Moss Landing highlights some of the underlying tensions of California becoming more reliant upon renewable energy, electric vehicles and battery-powered devices.
State officials have aggressively pushed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching to clean energy sources. But the Vistra blaze has prompted calls for additional safety regulations around battery storage — as well as more local control over where storage sites are located.
The Elkhorn facility — which is owned by PG&E and maintained by both the utility company and Tesla — is one of two adjacent battery energy storage systems at the Moss Landing power complex near Monterey Bay. The other is owned by Texas-based Vistra Corp. The batteries store excess energy generated during the day and release it into the power grid during times of high demand, including evening hours.
Both facilities have been offline since Jan. 16, when a Vistra-owned building containing 99,000 LG battery modules caught fire.
The Elkhorn site includes 256 stationary Tesla Megapacks — essentially shipping container-sized units filled with battery modules. The facility did not burn but automatically shut down when its safety equipment detected the fire in the Vistra building.
PG&E announced last month that it planned to restart the Elkhorn facility by June 1 because, during the summer, 'that power is necessary to effectively manage the demands of the California power grid.'
Tesla and the utility company, two PG&E vice presidents wrote in a letter to the county supervisors, 'performed extensive inspection and clean-up' at the Elkhorn site.
After the discovery of problems at the Elkhorn facility Sunday, Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, whose district includes Moss Landing, called it 'a good sign' that PG&E quickly paused the restart. But, he said, he still wants the utility company to wait until the fire investigations are complete to try again.
'That PG&E encountered problems as they recharged their batteries points out the volatility of this technology,' Church told The Times in an email Monday night.
In a survey of nearby residents conducted by the Monterey and Santa Cruz county health departments, 83% of respondents said they experienced at least one symptom — most commonly headaches, sore throats and coughing — shortly after the fire.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said they had trouble breathing, and 39% reported having a metallic taste in their mouth.
The survey, conducted in February and March, was completed by 1,539 people who lived or worked in the region at the time of the fire. The results were released Monday.
Jim says, 'Always tell the truth and you never have to remember what you said.'Lisa says, ''Things always look better in the morning.' My dad was a realistic pessimist so this was solid advice coming from him and, over the years, it's proved to be true in my own life.'
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Today's great photo is from Times photographer Gina Ferazzi at a Riverside track field with Abi, a transgender high school athlete who navigates a fight she never asked for.
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