Battery storage fire prompts evacuation order at California Flats site in Monterey County

What happened

A thermal incident occurred at the California Flats Energy Storage Project, a battery energy storage system co-located with a large solar plant near Parkfield in Monterey County, California, operated and owned by Arevon Energy, with the battery system supplied and integrated by Tesla. The site's thermal detection system triggered and automatically alerted emergency services. Four of 84 battery units at the facility were affected; the remainder of the system was unaffected.

Local fire authorities attended but were not required to take suppression action, and the fire was allowed to burn out under controlled monitoring. As a precaution, an evacuation order was issued for a small number of nearby residences within a two-mile radius, which was lifted after approximately three hours once responders confirmed there was no ongoing threat to the public. No injuries or fatalities were reported, and no private property was damaged.

Contributing factors

The specific technical root cause of the thermal event has not been publicly disclosed. Automatic thermal detection enabled rapid notification of emergency services.

Lessons learned

1. Automated thermal detection at a battery storage site can alert emergency services before visible fire signs appear, allowing early site isolation.
2. A contained battery fire at a hybrid solar site can be left to burn out under monitoring when suppression risks outweigh benefits and spread is limited.

More lessons on detection and monitoring, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Root cause of the thermal event
• Battery unit model and age
• Duration of system downtime
• Cost of damage and response

This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.

Source

mcso.countyofmonterey.gov