Otay Mesa battery storage fire fuels residents' fear of similar facility in North County

Cal Fire on Tuesday lifted all remaining evacuation warnings for the Otay Mesa Battery Energy Storage Facility.

Firefighters remain actively engaged at the facility, which caught fire on May 15. The incident showed how difficult it is to completely extinguish lithium battery fires.

That’s why Eden Valley residents don’t want one in their neighborhood. They are actively fighting against the proposed Seguro battery storage project on the site of a former equestrian school.

“I don’t feel safe, and my kids don’t feel safe either,” said Amanda Black, who lives next to the proposed site.

The Otay Mesa Battery firing was a prime example of his fear.

“When the batteries catch fire, what happens – it's not an 'if' scenario, it's a 'when' scenario – there will be air pollution and we'll have to evacuate our house,” she declared. will breathe toxic fumes from fires.

The problem is that the batteries will overheat, causing a chemical reaction with adjacent batteries that can cause fires in what is called thermal runaway.

Although there have been cases like this, Max Guarniere, head of development at AES, said it was extremely rare.

Nonetheless, he said AES, the owner and operator of the proposed Seguro facility, is taking great care to mitigate them.

“Lithium-ion fires are always a big concern for us, and we always design our projects to mitigate this risk,” Guarnière said. “And what we do specifically for our projects is we take a four-step approach.”

These four stages include a fire suppression system within each battery module to isolate fires. (Each module is about the size of a DVD player). There are also smoke, heat and gas detectors.

Battery cells typically heat up and release hydrogen before catching fire.

Guarniere said AES took lessons from previous battery energy storage system (BESS) failures and applied them here.

These precautions, however, did not allay Brenda Wright's concerns. She lives opposite the site proposed by Seguro.

“It’s not just a fire,” she said. “It's toxic. Like fumes you can't breathe. If you breathe, it could hurt you for life. It could kill you.

She also worries about the escape route. Country Club Lane, a two-lane road, is the only entrance and exit for Eden Valley residents.

“There’s just no way out,” Wright said. “It was really scary having to evacuate because of the fires.”

When she had to evacuate because of the Cocos Fire 10 years ago, Wright said it took her nearly an hour to walk a half-mile down the road.

Guarniere said BESS's overall safety record is strong and improving, citing research from the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute, which shows the accident rate is declining.

He said the company had rigorously tested its fire suppression system, including a fire test to show the fire would not spread beyond the initial starting point.

“If we can't prove it, then we have to rethink the project and we won't install it that way,” Guarnière said. “And the reason we're doing this now is we're basically proving that if there's a fire and a failure, a catastrophic event won't happen.”

Although it is close to homes, AES said the site is a good location to meet the community's energy needs. It is near the SDG&E Escondido substation and can feed directly there without installing long overhead transmission lines.

“So we look at where the demand for energy is…what areas are prone or likely to experience power outages and blackouts,” Guarnière said. “And then these are the types of areas where we want to locate these projects.”

AES said the site has enough energy storage to power 240,000 homes for four hours.

Guarniere said this project aligns with California's goal of achieving a 100% carbon-free energy grid by 2045.

“Facilities like our Seguro battery storage project are therefore needed across the state,” he said. “And generally, they need to be located near places where there is energy demand.”

Eden Valley residents said they like the idea of ​​a battery storage facility to store green energy. They're just not convinced it should be in a residential area.

“It's new technology. And I feel like we're the neighborhood guinea pigs,” Black said. “And there are so many residences offered on all four sides of this facility. I just don't feel safe.”

The Seguro project is still in its early stages. AES still needs to complete an environmental impact report and other regulatory filings.

Meanwhile, Eden Valley residents have started a petition on Change.org to stop the project.