Monterey County officials issued an evacuation order Thursday after a fire broke out at Vistra’s battery facility at the Moss Landing Generating Station.
The fire broke out at a battery storage center on California’s Central Coast. politiko reported Vistra Energy, owner of the Moss Landing power plant and lithium-ion battery facility, confirmed that site employees had been removed Thursday afternoon after the fire broke out. California Highway Patrol closed Highway 1 near the fire scene.
“The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but an investigation will begin once the fire is extinguished,” Vistra spokeswoman Jenny Leung told Politico.
Democratic California Congresswoman Dawn Addis said in a social media post Thursday that she was “deeply concerned” about the safety of the facility.
“We demand transparency and accountability as to why this happened again at Moss Landing,” she wrote.
Mr Addis continued: “We are considering all options to ensure that a battery fire never happens again on the Central Coast in the future.”
I will continue to demand transparency and accountability as to why this happened again at Moss Landing. I am considering all options to ensure that battery energy storage fires never occur again on the Central Coast in the future.
(3/3)— Congresswoman Dawn Addis (@dawnaddis.bsky.social) January 17, 2025 12:13 AM
Vistra’s facility stores 750 megawatts of electricity and can power approximately 562,000 homes for up to four hours. The Texas-based company completed the construction phase of the energy storage facility in 2023 as part of efforts to strengthen California’s power grid.
The fire is not the first problem Vistra has faced in recent years.
USA – July 14: Boats and power plant in Moss Landing, California (Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)
According to Politico, in 2021 a heat detector failure caused damage to Vistra’s Moss Landing battery facility, and in 2022 a small fire occurred at the nearby Pacific Gas & Electric battery plant, which was backed by Tesla. A large scale fire broke out. (Related: Dick Van Dyke digs his heels into the ground and refuses to leave fire-ravaged area)
MOSS LANDING, CA – OCTOBER 11: The iconic twin towers of the Moss Landing Power Plant are visible to the shore from the deck of the Western Flyer from Monterey Bay on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 in Moss Landing, California. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
There are no reports of injuries from the fire at this time.
This story will continue to develop further.
