A fire at Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey Bay, California triggered evacuation orders and the closure of a portion of the state’s Highway 1 on Thursday night, as authorities tried to determine what caused the fire at one of the world’s largest grid battery storage facilities.
A view of flames at Moss Landing Power Plant that located on Pacific Coast Highway in Moss Landing … [+] of Monterey Bay, California. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Anadolu via Getty Images
Key Facts
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation orders for areas near the Moss Landing Power Plant at 7 p.m. local time, a few hours after the fire broke out.
Before issuing the evacuation orders, the sheriff’s office had urged residents in the area to close windows and shut off air systems “out of an abundance of caution.”
According to CNN, the evacuations were ordered due to concerns over “hazardous materials and potential chemical releases.”
The fire was first detected in the plant’s grid battery storage facility on Thursday afternoon and all plant personnel were evacuated from the site, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a spokesperson from the site’s operator Vistra Energy.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the report said an investigation would begin after the fire is extinguished.
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Big Number
1,500. That is the total number of people impacted by the evacuation orders, CNN reported, citing the county’s Spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli.
Key Background
Moss Landing Power Plant is owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy, which operates a natural gas power plant at the site along with a battery storage facility. The first phase of the battery storage system became operational in 2021 with a 300-megawatt capacity. Phase II added 100 megawatts capacity followed by another 350 megawatts in Phase III. After the third phase’s completion in 2023, Vistra said the 750-megawatt energy storage facility was the “largest of its kind in the world.” The plant complex is also home to another battery storage facility owned by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) which uses Tesla’s Megapacks. In 2022, a fire had broken out at PG&E’s battery facility.
Further Reading
Fire at Moss Landing energy storage facility forces evacuations, closes Highway 1 (San Francisco Chronicle)
Residents ordered to evacuate after fire breaks out at a power plant in Central California (CNN)
