Tesla's Largest Energy Storage Power Station in Australia Catches Fire

On the morning of July 30, during the test period of the newly registered Victorian battery project in Moorabool near Geelong, Australia, a fire broke out in a container containing Tesla Megapack batteries. The energy storage project has only been running for one day.

For companies in the renewable energy sector, this is a frightening moment. With the support of the government, Neoen is contributing to the exponential growth of the industry through various alternative energy methods. But such a rapid development speed may become overwhelming, requiring a high degree of attention as well as quality control and operation management. 

A Tesla Megapack-essentially a huge collection of rechargeable batteries, used for utility-scale power storage. Just a few days ago, the project had just received official registration. The energy storage capacity is 300MW/450MWh, which is equivalent to 4,500 Tesla cars connected together. The energy storage capacity of each Megapack is about 3MWh. A battery facility of this scale can power 150,000 homes for a year.

The project is owned by Neoen, which owns the first "Tesla large battery" project in Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, and also uses Tesla batteries in the Bulgana large battery project in Geelong.

In a statement, Neoen Australia managing director Louis de Sambucy said: "We can confirm that in today's preliminary test, from about 10 am to 10:15 am, a Tesla Megapacks in Victoria Big Battery took place. Fire. No one was injured and the scene has been evacuated. "Neoen and Tesla are working closely with the emergency services at the scene to control the situation. The site has been disconnected from the grid and will not affect the power supply. "We will provide an update and further details."

Sambucy added: “Neoen and Tesla are working closely with the emergency services on-site to deal with this situation. The site has been disconnected from the grid and will not affect the power supply.” Neoen also said that when there is It will provide updates when new information becomes available. So far, Tesla and AusNet have not immediately responded to any requests for comment.

A spokesperson told the local media "Geelong Advertiser" that firefighters arrived at the scene of the fire at the corner of Geelong-Ballan Rd and Atkinsons Rd around 11 am. The spokesperson said that 13 tons of lithium-ion batteries in a container were completely ignited. A spokesperson said: "The staff are working hard to control the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby batteries.

Victoria Big Battery is expected to be fully operational this summer, and has signed a 10-year contract with the Australian energy market operator to provide grid services, so that the capacity of the main transmission line between New South Wales and Victoria will be available at peak demand improve. In addition, energy storage batteries will also provide FCAS services and time-shift the output of wind and solar power to help meet peak demand.

This is Australia's first largest utility-scale battery energy storage project using Tesla Megapacks (the Hornsdale Tesla battery before Neoen used Powerpacks), despite the 50MW/75MWh Wallgrove built by Transgrid in Western Sydney. Megapack is also used in the battery project. This utility-level battery energy storage project is seen as the key to the Victorian government to achieve the 50% renewable energy target by 2030!

This is the first such accident in a large-scale battery storage facility on the Australian grid. Currently, there are six large-scale battery energy storage projects running on the Australian main network, and some are running on Pilbara's private network, or in off-grid and remote areas.

Recently, two other grid-scale large battery projects: the Victoria Large Battery Project and the WandoanSouth Large Battery Project in Queensland have just received registration and have started or are about to start testing. Three large-scale battery energy storage projects are also under construction.

Lasting Effect of Energy Storage

This incident raises a question. How safe is the lithium-ion battery storage technology? It is easy to be immersed in the excitement of renewable energy development, but such an important event may cause future concerns.

The Victorian government commissioned battery facilities to offset the closure of coal-fired power plants in the region, but such an event will not only delay the adoption of renewable energy; it will unlock the net zero contribution of Neoen and Tesla because of the unforeseen amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere , And there may be further questions about the credibility of Tesla's battery technology. To

This is not the first time Tesla technology has caught fire. 

Earlier this month, one of Tesla’s top models, the Model S Plaid, caught fire while the owner was driving — this happened only three days after the vehicle was delivered. The driver forcibly got out of the car due to a malfunction of the electronic door system. Similar to the vehicle accident that occurred earlier this month, the company may spend time investigating the incident in Victoria, which will further delay the development of renewable energy.

Does Battery Energy Storage Show its Weakness?

BSLBATT, as a renewable energy company in China, believes that the seriousness of this matter is that we must strengthen the control of the quality of energy storage batteries! "The incident similar to the large energy storage battery fire in Victoria is not accidental, and it is very likely to happen again, ” BSLBATT CEO Eric said, "We should be happy that no one paid the price of their lives, but at the same time, we should not ignore it. Controlling the quality of lithium batteries".

From this Tesla incident, we should not sit on the sidelines, but strengthen the control over the production of energy storage lithium batteries, and do a good job of quality inspection and performance testing!