MOSS LANDING – Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church and State Assemblymember Daybreak Addis are calling for the Vistra Moss Touchdown Battery Vitality Storage facility in Moss Touchdown to remain offline till officers can clarify what induced the fireplace that began Thursday and have the ability to assure the general public that the plant is secure.
“We cannot see another battery energy storage fire,” Addis stated in a press convention Friday afternoon. “This can’t happen again.
Earlier in the day, Church called for a “full independent investigation at all levels on what exactly happened.”
A Vistra consultant responded later Friday afternoon saying that figuring out when the plant goes again on-line shall be a “collaboration” and the corporate can be following laws and informing the general public.
The hearth appeared to flare up once more Friday afternoon however Addis and Church stated that they had been briefed that the fireplace would flare up as further batteries throughout the construction the place the fireplace is ignite.
The hearth resulted in an evacuation affecting about 1,200 individuals and the closure of Freeway 1 in each instructions, amongst different roadways. Evacuation orders had been lifted late Friday.
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“There needs to be some accountability,” Church stated within the Friday morning press convention, noting this was the fourth fireplace in 5 years at Moss Touchdown battery services.
The hearth at one of many world’s largest Battery Vitality Storage Programs was in a constructing housing 300 lithium-ion batteries, of which an unknown quantity burned and proceed to burn. The hazardous supplies inside smoke plumes from lithium-ion batteries embody hydrogen fluoride, a colorless gasoline that may trigger extreme injury to the physique.
North County Fireplace Safety District Chief Joel Mendoza stated a fire-suppression system in a battery rack didn’t comprise the fireplace. The hearth was most intense Thursday evening, he stated, and by Friday morning it had largely gone out. However the plume remained a priority and was being monitored by each the U.S. Environmental Safety Company and CTEH, a Vistra outdoors marketing consultant.
Mendoza reported that the preliminary info from monitoring the plume confirmed no hazardous hydrogen fluoride was detected.
Friday afternoon, flames may as soon as once more be seen coming from the plant and the plume had grown exponentially.
Friday morning Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto stated evacuation orders would nonetheless be in impact and was ready for the superior air-monitoring methods report, to “err on the side of caution so nobody is hurt,” earlier than the county and the Sheriff’s Division lifted the evacuation orders
Pete Ziegler, regional vp who oversees the Moss Touchdown energy plant and power storage facility, stated that monitoring began instantly after the fireplace started.
He acknowledged the system failure, however added, “We don’t know what started this event yet.”
Church labeled the fireplace a “worst-case scenario of a disaster here,” and added that it’s a “wake-up call for this industry.”
The hearth on the Vistra Energy Plant started about 3 p.m. Thursday and there have been no accidents or fatalities reported from the occasion.
Vistra and Pacific Fuel and Electrical/Tesla function battery power storage services on the Moss Touchdown energy plant.
The Moss Touchdown energy plant website has been producing power by numerous means since 1950. It has the infrastructure and zoned land that makes it a primary location for battery power storage methods. The power storage services exist there after going by means of the general public course of and had been authorized by commissions and boards earlier than development and operation.
Vistra had incidents that occurred at its battery power storage system Sept. 4, 2021 and Feb. 13, 2022. Pacific Fuel and Electrical/Tesla, also called Elkhorn Battery Vitality Storage System, had an incident Sept. 20, 2022.
Each Vistra incidents at its Moss Touchdown facility in 2021 and 2022 had been attributable to water leaks from its mitigation system. This led to grounding, arcing and localized smoke. Each occasions had been contained to the positioning and didn’t affect air, water, soil, or close by communities.
Laws that was created in response to fireside breaking out in 2022 on the Elkhorn Battery Vitality Storage System facility at Moss Touchdown was signed into legislation by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October, 2023.
Senate Invoice 38, authored by State Senator John Laird, D-Santa Cruz and co-authored by Assemblymember Daybreak Adddis, D-Morro Bay, requires battery storage services to determine security and communication protocols.
“If renewable energy is going to be the future, it really needs to rest on safe energy,” stated Church.
Herald reporter Kyarra Harris contributed to this report. 
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