San Diego, CA
Recent fires spark concern over Lithium Battery Storage facilities
Some county leaders are considering a moratorium after a couple of fires have broken out at battery storage facilities across the county. The most recent one happened Thursday in Escondido, evacuating hundreds of residents and businesses.
Nancy Jennings lives in Escondido, just a few miles from the SDG&E Lithium-Ion Battery Facility that caught fire. She was forced out of her home Thursday due to a power outage.
She said an SDG&E representative told her extreme heat caused the power to go out.
“When I had called SDC and spoke to their representative, she had checked with, her people there, and what they told her was that the fire had damaged SDC is equipment and that was why the outage and why it took so long to repair, because it was over 12 hours,” Jennings said.
SDG&E has not confirmed a connection between the fire and the power outage at Nancy’s home.
However, Nancy said she relies on power for survival.
“Appliances. Who cares? I can do with. I can’t do without my oxygen,” she said.
Nancy said even before the fire broke out at the SDG&E facility, she and many of her neighbors have opposed these battery facilities in their community.
“It’s just too dangerous,” Jennings said.
County Supervisor Jim Desmond for District 5 expressed a similar sentiment.
“We’re getting way too many fires from these types of battery storage facilities and we need to get some more, unfortunately some more regulations in place to make sure they’re safe,” Supervisor Desmond said.
On Wednesday, the county board of Supervisors is going to consider guidelines and a potential moratorium on the battery energy storage facilities.
Supervisor Desmond said the moratorium would only apply to Battery Systems that need county permits.
He said of the nearly 50 battery storage facilities across San Diego County, about 80 percent don’t require county permitting because they get approval through the California Public Utilities Commission.
“I don’t think a moratorium is required, but I do recommend that communities like Poway due the level of detail that Poway did,” Kevin Smith, CEO of Arevon Energy said.
Arevon Energy is a company that owns six operating battery storage facilities and has additional facilities in development, including one in Poway.
“We’ve got state of the art technology. A perfect track record on safety on our energy storage projects,” Smith said.
Smith said Battery storage facilities build grid stability, reduce brown outs and black outs, and facilitate renewable energy onto the system.
However, Supervisor Desmond said more regulations should be considered to ensure the safety of the community.
“We have to put some sort of safeguards in place to where any new ones have to have the latest and greatest technology for fire suppression, fire detection, and we have to make sure that those work,” Desmond said.
Especially, since another energy storage project has been proposed right around the corner from Nancy’s home.
“They need to figure out a better solution. It does not belong in this valley or anywhere near residences,” she said.
In a statement to NBC 7, SDG&E said in part, “Over the coming weeks, the Escondido Fire Department and SDG&E will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
Joan Endres
OBITUARY
Born January 1939 in Cincinnati Ohio. Died February 14, 2026, in San Diego, California, with her sons at her side. Her beloved husband Dean passed away in 2010.
Joan was the only child of Thomas and Edna Palmer. In 1943, the family moved to San Diego, where Joan graduated from Helix High School in 1956.
In 1957 Joan married Dean Endres of San Diego, where they raised two sons. Joan followed her two great passions outside the home, the Arts, and Gardening. Both activities being a way to bring beauty to others and to the community.
Joan received a degree in Environmental Design from San Diego State University, and afterwords worked at UCSD, for the Campus Architect.
As an artist, Joan worked in various media, especially ceramics. She was active in many cultural and arts organizations, eventually becoming President of the Combined Organization for the Visual Arts (COVA). Later she turned to gardening, with the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca Community College and the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County.
Joan is survived by her son Jeff and wife Katrin, grandson Jackson, and son Todd Endres, all of La Mesa, and sisters Alice Buck of Phoenix, Elaine Kennedy of San Diego, Nancy and husband Don Jones of Vista, Eva Budzinski of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and their children and grandchildren.
There will be a Celebration of Life for Joan in the near future. Those who wish to attend should contact celebratejoanuvart@gmail.com to receive details when they are confirmed. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully suggests a donation to the Water Conservation Garden or the Diego Visual Arts Network (SDVAN).
The San Diego State Aztecs’ have moved off the bubble and back into the NCAA Tournament’s Field of 64 in the latest ESPN’s Bracketology projections.
The Aztecs must feel like a yo-yo, but now it’s in a good way. Bracket expert Joe Lunardi moved them from the bottom of the First Four Out — No. 72 — to holding the Mountain West’s automatic bid after an 89-72 home romp Wednesday night over Utah State, which had held the auto-bid in bracketology for a few weeks now.
Lunardi now has the Aztecs as the No. 11 seed in the West Region, with a projected first-round date against former MW rival BYU in Portland.
Lunardi wrote that SDSU’s auto-bid “shifts the entire bubble.”
Wednesday night’s victory not only pulled the Aztecs (19-8, 13-4) into a tie with Utah State (23-5, 13-4) atop the MW standings, but it was just their second Quad 1 victory in six such opportunities.
SDSU’s next two games are both Quad 1 chances, at New Mexico on Saturday and then at Boise State on Tuesday night.
The win lifted the Aztecs only one spot in the NCAA NET Rankings, to No. 43. Those rankings are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee as the primary sorting tool for selection and seeding for March Madness.
SDSU’s resume for earning an at-large berth has been on shaky ground all season, and was seriously damaged last week when the Aztecs lost at home to Grand Canyon and were then routed at Colorado State, both Quad 2 games.
SDSU’s best bet to assure a trip to March Madness for the sixth straight season is to win the MW tournament in Las Vegas and claim the automatic bid. That requires winning three games in as many days, and perhaps a third showdown against the Aggies, who beat the Aztecs 71-66 in Logan on Jan. 31.
Lunardi now has Utah State projected as an at-large team, but still with the No. 7 seed in the East, facing No. 10 Texas A&M in a first-round game in St. Louis.
New Mexico (21-7, 12-5), lurking just a game behind SDSU and USU, has dropped from the Last Four In at No. 68 to the First Four Out at No. 70.
The Aztecs were the unanimous preseason pick to win the MW regular-season title in their final season in the league before moving into the Pac-12 along with Utah State, Boise State, Fresno State and Colorado State.
Saturday’s game at New Mexico is set to tip off at 11 a.m. PT and will air on CBS.
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