Fire at Vistra's Moss Landing BESS Facility Under Control

Written by Jill Sampson for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A fire erupted at the Moss Landing Power Plant on January 16 at the 300-megawatt (MW) Phase I battery energy storage system (BESS) run by Vistra Energy Corporation (NYSE:VST) (Irving, Texas) in Monterey County, California. What started small soon grew into an inferno that caused officials to evacuate nearby areas and close Highway 1 in the area of the plant. The fire was still smoldering but was considered under control early on January 20, when the evacuation orders were lifted and the highway reopened.

Moss Landing has been ground zero for transforming the California power grid and is home to the BESS and fossil-fueled units that generate 1,100 MW.

Vistra's Moss Landing project has had smaller fires. Between September 2021 and June 2022, both of the first two phases had to be taken offline after separate overheating incidents. Another nearby BESS project also had an overheating incident of its own in September 2022.

The giant Moss Landing BESS facility was added to the existing Moss Landing infrastructure as older facilities were decommissioned, leaving access to the high-voltage transmission infrastructure. The 300-MW Phase 1 came online in 2020, the 100-MW Phase 2 in 2021, and the 350-MW Phase 3 in 2023 with plenty of room left for future growth. Vistra Energy noted that the expansion was completed on schedule within a 16-month time frame, adding more than 110,000 battery modules in 112 containerized units. The BESS was built with lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (NMC) batteries from LG Energy Solution (Seoul, South Korea).

Phase 1 did not use containerized boxes, but instead repurposed the historic turbine hall as the home for rows and rows of batteries. This configuration allowed for the fire to spread easily using the building's wood for fuel and allowing easy propagation between cells.

This incident will likely be a watershed moment for the industry and a setback for clustering batteries in building enclosures instead of modular containers. As newer BESS facilities are built, they likely will use lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are less susceptible to fire. LFP batteries are known for their high energy density, long life, and good performance at high temperatures. Safer, water-based and redox flow batteries are being developed by scientists but have not yet scaled to commercial use.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Plant Database can click here for the plant profile.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).