Tesla Megapack hearth in Australia blamed on undetected coolant leak By Reuters

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A fireplace that broken two Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc battery models at an enormous power storage undertaking in Australia in July was attributable to a coolant leak that went undetected throughout start-up assessments, a state watchdog stated in a report launched on Tuesday.

Security regulators on Tuesday cleared the so-called Victoria Huge Battery undertaking, run by French renewables agency Neoen SA, to renew testing on the web site close to Melbourne.

Nonetheless the protection regulator Vitality Protected Victoria stated it’ll now decide whether or not there have been any breaches of the state’s electrical energy security guidelines and “in that case, whether or not enforcement motion is warranted”.

Neoen stated it’s working with Tesla to make sure the 450 megawatt hour power storage undertaking is prepared for the Australian summer time, which begins in December. Testing will resume on Wednesday.

“We’ve taken the time to know the reason for the incident and now we have applied actions to make sure it won’t occur once more,” Neoen Australia Managing Director Louis de Sambucy stated.

The fireplace was first detected on July 30 when smoke was noticed popping out of 1 Megapack after which erupted into flames, which took a number of hours to subside. It took three day earlier than hearth authorities declared the location below management.

Investigations by a number of Victoria state companies discovered that the hearth within the Megapack, a delivery container-sized battery unit, was triggered by brief circuits in two areas possible attributable to a coolant leak outdoors the battery compartment.

The brief circuits occurred when the Megapack had been switched off after preliminary testing, which eliminated fault protections. That meant the fault went undetected and the hearth unfold to an adjoining battery compartment.

Actions have been taken to forestall that taking place once more on the Victoria web site and throughout Tesla’s international fleet of Megapacks, Neoen stated.

“Via these actions, Tesla has improved the detectability and related fault safety towards some of these uncommon occasions,” Neoen stated.

The Victoria Huge Battery is without doubt one of the world’s largest and is seen as important to stopping blackouts in a market that’s more and more reliant on photo voltaic and wind energy, particularly throughout heatwaves.

Tesla has not commented on the hearth.

Vitality Protected Victoria stated it has required Tesla to offer the ultimate outcomes of its investigation into why the hearth precipitated the lack of a second Megapack and what it’ll do to forestall that from taking place once more.

($1 = 1.3778 Australian {dollars})