Tesla Battery Fire Causes Partial Closure Of California Highway 1
On Sept. 20, a fire at a substation storing Tesla batteries at Pacific Power & Electric (PG&E) in Monterey, California, shut down a section of nearby Highway 1, but there were no injuries.
According to a Pacific Tile Power spokesperson, the battery was found to be on fire at around 1:30 a.m. on the 20th. After the fire broke out, nearby residents were evacuated in an emergency and Pacific Tile Power was working with firefighters to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading. California had closed California Highway 1 for several hours after the fire started, with traffic changing direction away from the fire.
The substation stores Tesla Megapack's giant battery energy storage equipment. The Megapack is said to be an oversized battery that grid operators use to transfer excess power between counties or states, or to store intermittent power and discharge it when demand increases, or when the grid goes down.
The battery storage facility in Monterey County was disconnected from the grid and the incident did not trigger a power outage and no one was injured, Pacific Tile Power said in a statement.
