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.