Tesla world’s largest battery has been shut down for months due to an investigation, but it’s still going ahead with expansion.
Tesla has deployed what many believe will become the world’s largest battery system for PG&E at the Moss Landing station in California. However, the Tesla Megapack system was closed for months due to a fire investigation.
But the company still plans to move forward with the expansion of the energy storage system this summer.
We first learned about the project at PG&E’s Moss Landing substation when it was submitted to the CPUC and the company was in talks with Tesla in 2017.
These are four separate energy storage projects, and two of them should become the largest battery systems in the world.
Dynegy will deploy a 300MW/1,200MWh project on the PG&E grid, while Tesla’s project will be 182.5MW/730MWh, which could eventually reach 1.1GWh.
In 2018 we got Tesla’s proposal for the project.and shows that the company plans to use “Megapack” instead of its usual Powerpack for large-scale utility projects.
In 2020, the project was officially approved and Tesla started construction of the first phase began of the project in July.
last year, Tesla deployed Megapacks with a capacity of 100 MW/ 300 MWh on the site, and Vistra Corp, the site operator for PG&E, began operating the system.
However, there were two smoke and fire related incidents at the site in September 2021 and February 2022 that caused the Tesla Megapack system to be shut down for a full investigation.
Months later, there is no clear timetable for turning the system back on, but the local newspaper Monterey County Weekly reports that companies are targeting this summer.
Both PG&E and Vistra appear confident that the Tesla batteries were not related to the incidents:
Vistra spokeswoman meranda cohn says the incidents on september 4, 2021 and february 13, 2022 will not affect their momentum moving forward.
“Pg&e spokesman paul doherty says as much, adding that the utility has “full confidence” in the project and that analysis so far has shown that batteries are not to blame for the two incidents.”
All parties involved hope that the CPUC will approve the expansion.
Tesla’s world’s largest battery has been shut down for months due to an investigation, but it’s still going ahead with expansion, April 12, 2022
