Safety incident at Kearny South Energy Storage Facility in Kearny Mesa

What happened

A safety incident occurred at the Kearny South Energy Storage Facility, a 20 MW / 80 MWh lithium iron phosphate battery energy storage facility located at a substation site in Kearny Mesa, San Diego, California, USA, roughly two years after the system entered commercial operation. The facility, one of two co-located storage systems at the same substation, is operated by San Diego Gas and Electric and was identified by a state utility regulator as having experienced a reportable safety event.

Publicly available records confirm that an incident took place on the stated date and that it was subsequently listed among a series of energy storage safety incidents that prompted regulatory review of maintenance, operation and emergency reporting standards for battery storage systems. The available sources do not describe the specific nature of the event, such as whether it involved fire, thermal runaway, electrical fault or another failure mode, nor do they report on injuries, evacuation, fire service response or downtime.

Contributing factors

Not reported in available sources.

Lessons learned

1. Incidents at lithium iron phosphate battery sites two years after start up can trigger regulatory review of maintenance and emergency reporting standards.
2. Public records for battery storage safety events often omit the event type, so operators should plan for detailed internal logs to support later review.

More lessons on emergency response and public communication, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Specific nature of the safety event
• Injuries, evacuation or fire service response
• Downtime or cost of the incident

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

Source

docs.cpuc.ca.gov