County official calls huge Northern California lithium battery storage fire a "Three Mile Island" event for emerging industry

The massive fire at one of the world's largest lithium battery storage plants in Northern California has shaken a local community worried about possible long-term impacts and brought scrutiny to the emerging industry's safety practices.

The fire at a power plant and battery facility operated by Vistra Energy in the Monterey County community of Moss Landing began Thursday afternoon, forcing evacuations and the closure of coastal Highway 1. A Monterey County official on Friday called it the largest fire ever of its kind. 

The Moss Landing Power Plant, about 95 miles south of San Francisco, is owned and operated by Vistra subsidiary Dynegy and also houses two independent battery storage plants. The plant that is burning is owned by Vistra Energy while a second battery storage facility on the same site is owned by Pacific Gas and Electric, which said the incident was not a PG&E event.

There have been no injuries reported in the fire, which is being allowed to burn itself out as is standard procedure for such fires, according to the Monterey County Emergency Operations Center. However, the smoke from the fire has forced other residents not under evacuation orders to close their windows and remain indoors. 

Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church called the incident a "Three Mile Island event" for the industry, referencing the 1979 partial meltdown at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The battery energy storage systems industry, known by the acronym BESS, develops systems to store energy from electric, solar, electric, wind, and other energy systems.

"I think that this is, uh, can best be described as a worst-case scenario of a disaster that's happened here. Nobody really predicted anything on this line," said Church. "This is really a lot more than just a fire, it's a wake-up call for this industry. And if we're going to be moving ahead with sustainable energy we need to have safe battery systems in place."  

On Tuesday, the American Clean Power Association disputed Church's Three Mile Island comparison, calling it "misleading and dangerous." ACP also noted that the risk and impact associated with the potential meltdown of a nuclear reactor and release of radioactive materials is far greater than the risk of a worst-case failure at a battery storage facility.

Massive battery projects involving hundreds of megawatts are becoming more common in the U.S. and across the globe. California law requires investor-owned utilities to store energy and the state is expected to need 50 gigawatts of battery storage to meet its 2045 goal of getting all of its power from carbon-free sources from the current 7 gigawatts today, according to Reuters.

In a statement to CBS News Bay Area, ACP spokesperson Phil Sgro said, 

"We are aware of the ongoing incident at Moss Landing and are gathering additional information from our partners and stakeholders on the ground. While fire-related incidents at battery energy storage sites are rare, and investigations into historical incidents have not found health risks to neighbors or the surrounding community, we are not able to comment on the unique circumstances of this particular incident as the response is still ongoing.

"The energy storage industry works closely with fire officials and emergency responders to ensure the safety of its neighbors and appropriately respond to any safety incident. The industry is committed to meeting and exceeding the latest and most rigorous safety standards for energy storage facilities, and coordinates with local fire departments, first responders, and regulatory bodies to ensure storage projects account for the safety needs of every community.

"Safety is the first and foremost priority of the industry and, after the incident is resolved and there is a thorough investigation, the industry will ensure the lessons learned are applied to prevent future incidents and inform safety standards and best practices."

Church said he has fielded numerous questions from his constituents on why it happened, how it happened, and how to prevent a similar accident in the future. Church added it is the fourth fire at the site, a former Pacific Gas and Electric facility, since 2019 and said he and other county officials were previously assured it would not happen again. He called for increased safety protocols for the industry at federal, state, local, and private levels.

The battery plant fire on the shore of Monterey Bay is also situated next to environmentally sensitive areas such as Elkhorn Slough, designated a "wetland slough of international importance." 

Church said while he understands the need for the battery industry, he said the transition to sustainable energy "cannot, will not come before the safety of families and environment."

"This never should have happened," said a visibly shaken Church. "And so, there is obviously some gaps going on here of information, there's some gaps going forth here on safety, there's gaps going here that are going to take some time to understand, but they gotta be - there's gotta be lessons that we learn from this."

Church said it was the largest fire ever of its kind and also called for an independent investigation into the incident.

"If renewable energy is going to be a future, it really needs to rest with safe energy," said Church. "And I'm not going to rest and leave this until I know we have a safe environment and a safe operation in the Moss Landing area."

Monterey County officials declared a local state of emergency over the fire on Tuesday.  

Texas-based Vistra Energy senior director of community affairs Brad Watson also spoke at the press conference, saying the company considers itself part of the community and has taken the incident very seriously. Watson apologized to all those affected by the current situation.

"We are hurting today because we know primarily it's impacted and disrupted the people who live around our site, our neighbors, our friends, and businesses, and for that, we are sincerely sorry," said Watson.

Watson said it will listen to the community residents on how the company can consider ways to provide assistance. The company was contracting with an air quality monitoring company to keep residents informed of any possible health impacts from the fire's smoke and coordinate its findings with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

According to ACP, fire-related incidents at BESS sites are incredibly rare, with 20 incidents in the last 10 years at U.S. operating energy storage facilities even as energy storage deployments have grown by more than 25,000% since 2018.