(Bloomberg) — A fire broke out at Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing complex in California, one of the world’s biggest battery storage facilities, prompting evacuations. Local officials said a fire suppressant system failed.
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Every rack of batteries at the facility has a fire suppressant system fed by an on-site system, and this system failed, Chief Joel Mendoza with the North County Fire District, said during a press briefing Friday. The county declared a local emergency.
The Monterey County Sheriff told residents to close windows and shut off air systems after the fire broke out at 3 p.m. Thursday and then told them to leave the area an hour later. About 1,200 people were evacuated and the order was still in effect at 10:20 a.m. Friday, the sheriff said. The plant is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of San Francisco in an area famous for whale and birdwatching on the Pacific Coast.
“It is the worst-case scenario,” said Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, noting this is the fourth but worst fire since 2019 at the facilities. “I was assured there were safety protocols in place.”
Vistra’s shares fell as much as 4.3% after closing at a record high on Thursday of $174. The stock has been a major beneficiary of expectations that demand for the company’s power plants and battery facilities will soar as artificial intelligence boosts energy consumption.
The fire was detected in the 300-megawatt phase I part of the plant and Vistra personnel called for help from the North Monterey Fire District, spokeswoman Jenny Lyon said in an email. The facility was evacuated and the cause will be investigated once the fire is extinguished, Lyon said.
Monterey County called an emergency meeting at 8:30 a.m. local time Friday with more than 300 people logged on. Officials said there was little plume emitting and the primary concern was of a toxic gas, hydrogen flouride, moving to communities north of the facility. A Vistra representative said the company immediately started air monitoring.
Battery facilities like the one in Moss Landing provide electricity to the grid when power supplies are tight and also help stabilize the grid, such as when power plants go offline. Such batteries, most of which are highly flammable, are seen as a critical way to back up renewables and shore up grids strained by extreme weather.
The state grid managed by the California Independent System Operator is seeing no impact to operations or reliability from the fire, spokeswoman Anne Gonzales said in an email.
Supervisor Church said local fire officials told him it could be days or weeks before they could enter the facility.
“Depending on what we find out from investigators, this could be a setback not just for Vistra but for the entire utility-scale battery industry,” Morningstar analyst Travis Miller said.
The facility has 350 megawatts of capacity in all and was dubbed the largest of its kind when it was completed in 2023, supplying California with electricity. The facility was brought online in stages and first went into service in December 2020.
In 2021, some of the battery modules were taken offline because of overheating. The incident was contained, Vistra and the fire department said at the time. Some of the batteries there were supplied by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, while PG&E owns hundreds of Tesla Inc. battery units used at the site.
(Updates with additional details throughout.)
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