Tesla Megapack unit caught fire in electricity storage near Melbourne burned out in less than four days

One of the Tesla Megapack units included in the Australian Victorian Big Battery electric storage facility near Melbourne, which caught fire in late July, went out. The firefighters managed to keep the situation under control for more than three days. They were able to prevent the spread of fire to neighboring blocks.

The lithium-ion batteries in the unit caught fire during the storage tests. A special feature of the fire was the fact that firefighters cannot pour water on the fire or use other conventional methods of extinguishing, since water contributes to the burning of lithium. Instead, they had to let the block burn out and wait for the container to cool down enough to open the doors and check if the burning was over.

“Firefighters successfully completed the operation to open all doors of the battery container and found no signs of fire,” the fire department said.

Last weekend, about 150 firefighters and more than 30 special vehicles worked at the scene. Some of them will remain on the territory of the storage facility over the next 24 hours in case the fire resumes. Firefighters will take readings of block temperatures every two hours.

The storage facility with a capacity of 300 MW and a capacity of 450 MWh is the largest in Australia. It is planned to be commissioned by December this year. The project is being implemented by the French company Neoen SA, the storage blocks are supplied by Tesla.

The country’s fire department, local authorities for monitoring the operating conditions of power plants and labor protection intend to conduct a “full and comprehensive” investigation of the fire in cooperation with Neoen and Tesla.