On Thursday, Jan. 16, we detected a fire at our Moss Landing 300 energy storage facility at the Moss Landing Power Plant Site. Company personnel immediately responded, and the North Monterey County Fire District was quickly dispatched to the scene. The fire was contained to the Moss 300 building, which is one of several buildings at the Moss Landing Power Plant and did not spread to any of the other energy storage facilities or the combined-cycle natural gas plant located on site.  

Conditions at the site remain stable at this time, and crews continue to monitor the site in coordination with local officials. We are immensely grateful for their swift response to this event.   

Vistra has begun its investigation into the cause of the fire and has retained multiple outside experts to assist in that effort.  At this time, anything that suggests a cause or reason behind the incident is purely speculation.   

We are also working alongside our local, state, and national regulators and other stakeholders so that we all can understand what happened and so the industry can learn how to prevent similar incidents from happening elsewhere. Investigations like these take time to complete, as our teams will examine numerous data points to determine the origin of this event.   

We will publicly share the findings of our investigation when it is complete. 

Air quality monitoring during and after the incident confirmed that there are no hazardous air conditions or risks to public health. These findings have been confirmed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Monterey Bay Air Resources District. Out of an abundance of caution, air monitoring remains ongoing on the site and in the nearby community.  

As noted in modeling performed by EPA, hydrogen fluoride – which is a hazardous material that can be released by lithium battery fires -- was consumed in the fire.  This was clearly articulated by the EPA in a press conference on January 18.      

Vistra began initial air monitoring at the site at approximately 4 p.m. Pacific time on Jan. 16 when the fire was first detected. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency arrived on site at approximately 2 a.m. Pacific time on Jan. 17 and began their testing.  A leading independent environmental firm, CTEH, arrived at 5 a.m. on Jan. 17 and has been conducting extensive air quality monitoring in and around the Moss Landing community as part of ongoing response efforts.   

For the latest air quality monitoring reports, visit the County of Monterey emergency website.

See the EPA’s press release here. 

The Marina Coast Water District directly communicated with residents with respect to this incident, please see "Our Water Supply Remains Safe" for more details.  

The County of Monterey collected water samples and confirmed that all levels are within safe drinking water standards.    

All water at the Moss Landing facility is collected, held in closed sumps on the property and tested prior to disposal, in accordance with all relevant permits. 

Soil testing from California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) found that any deposition of soot/metals associated with fire appears to be localized within the immediate area of the plant and adjacent property immediately to the north and west of the plant.  We are continuing to work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), as well as the affected landowners, to evaluate what additional testing needs to be done within the modeled deposition area.  

Juan Hidalgo, County of Monterey Agricultural Commissioner, stated on February 12 that “it is reassuring to know that there's no elevated levels of metals found in the soil related to the fire.”

With soil testing, it’s important to understand both that there are some levels of metal in soil and any test results need to be viewed in the context of what is already existing in the soil and comparing them to acceptable levels.   

Commissioner Hidalgo later stated, “Some of our soils contain nickel, for instance, or copper. It's not like there [are] new metals that have been added to our area because of the incident.”

Like many of our neighbors and friends, Moss Landing is our home, and we’re committed to working closely with our community partners and local officials to determine how we can best help.  

We have chosen to partner with the Community Foundation for Monterey County and its partners to administer an assistance program that will support households who were impacted by the January 16 incident. We’re grateful for the Foundation’s partnership.  

This initial assistance program is limited to households within the evacuation area identified by Monterey County’s Department of Emergency Management.  The Community Foundation, along with its partners at United Way Monterey County and the Castro Plaza Family Resource Center, will provide gift cards funded by Vistra to households within the evacuation area. 

More information is available here.

Vistra recognizes that the evacuation and traffic closures from the fire at our Moss Landing site may have had an impact on some area businesses. We apologize for the hardship this has caused affected businesses and employees.   

Since then, we have heard from and talked personally to many Moss Landing business owners, managers, and employees about how we can help. In that regard, Vistra is establishing a claims program for business disruptions. 

The program is run by an experienced third-party claims administrator and covers businesses that are located in the evacuation zone or located at or operating out of the Moss Landing Harbor. 

We understand that cash flow is tight for small businesses. We are committed to making the claims process as efficient as possible and getting funds to affected businesses promptly. 

Click here for more information. 

In addition to the battery facilities at Moss Landing (Moss-300, Moss-100, Moss-350), Vistra owns and operates a 1,020-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plant (CCGT). 

The natural gas plant was safely manually shut down and taken offline on Jan. 16 due to the evacuation orders issued at the time. After a careful assessment and inspection of the impacted and surrounding buildings, it has been determined that it is safe for the natural gas plant to resume operations.  

The natural gas plant is located in an entirely separate area of the property and, importantly, operates independent of the Moss 300 battery facility that was impacted by the fire.  

The natural gas plant is located in a designated local capacity area. This means that this power plant has a key role in supporting local reliability during certain periods. To that end, we have made the grid operator CAISO aware that the plant is available for dispatch. 

All operations at the Moss Landing battery site are shut down, and Vistra does not have plans to restart battery storage at Moss Landing at this time.   

Our focus now is on the immediate situation at the site, completing the investigation, examining the rest of the facility, and answering other questions before restart will be considered. Any restart would be done in consultation and coordination with all appropriate regulatory bodies. 

No, this is the first fire at any of our battery installations. We experienced two overheating events, one in 2021 and one in 2022, caused by a malfunction in the facility’s fire suppression system where a release of water caused electrical shorting and overheating on a portion of our batteries. However, neither occurrence led to fire, as there can be smoke without fire as it relates to battery incidents. These events were controlled and had no impact on the general public. See more information here.