Tesla battery fire…
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/20/23363345/tesla-megapack-b…
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from the article:
According to Smith, built-in safety systems worked as designed, automatically disconnecting the Tesla batteries from the grid when the fire was detected.
Also from the article (note the Tesla batteries are the Elkhorn facility):
California’s electric grid is connected to multiple battery storage facilities, including Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, a 400-megawatt setup across two buildings adjacent to Elkhorn. The higher power operation houses batteries built by LG Energy Solutions, and according to Mercury News, it was shut down earlier this year due to at least two separate issues with overheating batteries.
Although the text says “overheating” the news reporter in the video said the LG facility had two fires.
Mike
Although the text says “overheating” the news reporter in the video said the LG facility had two fires.
When a battery fails by arcing, you get heat and probably light. And anything flammable probably burns.
Perhaps an overheating battery can be detected before it fails, but then what? How do you stop the overheating?
When a battery fails by arcing,…
All failures I’m aware of so far have been because various non-battery equipment and procedures failed, which then led to the batteries having problems. Not surprising. No batteries failing by “arcing”.
Here’s Reuters on the incident at the Neoen facility in Australia, which is the only other fire involving Tesla Megapacks that I am aware of:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-megapack-fire-austr…
Investigations by several Victoria state agencies found that the fire in the Megapack, a shipping container-sized battery unit, was triggered by short circuits in two locations likely caused by a coolant leak outside the battery compartment.
The short circuits occurred when the Megapack had been switched off after initial testing, which removed fault protections. That meant the fault went undetected and the fire spread to an adjacent battery compartment.
Actions have been taken to prevent that happening again at the Victoria site and across Tesla’s global fleet of Megapacks, Neoen said.
There hasn’t yet been any fault analysis regarding this fire, but what is known is that it was one isolated Megapack out of the 256 in their system. Given that PG&E is involved, my guess is that this is yet another case of PG&E screwing up maintenance. It’s kind of a pattern with them. But we probably won’t know for months.
Meanwhile, it should be easy to put the facility back on line, having lost 1/256 of its capacity.
-IGU-
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