ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) — A fire at a battery storage facility in Otay Mesa burned for two weeks straight back in May. Last week, another at an Escondido facility forced evacuations for anyone within a one-mile radius. Two fires, just four months apart, sparking concern with residents in this community in unincorporated Escondido.
"Every agency should take a step back and put in rules and regulations about where these can be located," said Phyllis Laderman.
That community found hope after Wednesday's county meeting where leaders agreed to new safety restrictions for battery storage projects. Specifically, the creation of buffer zones between battery storage facilities and people's homes. The county still needs to agree on the exact size of these buffer zones. This decision could impact the Seguro project.
"We are really invested in what happens today and what happens in the future for San Diego County," said Corinne Lytle-Bonine, who is working with AES on the project.
It's a battery storage facility set to be built on a 22-acre site in unincorporated Escondido. She says the nearest battery container would be around 140 feet away from nearby homes.
"There's a hospital nearby, there are homes surrounding that site, and there is that chance if a fire breaks out that it would be extremely toxic for that community, does it make sense?" 10News reporter Perla Shaheen asked.
"We think it does make sense. One of the reasons we sited it where we are is we are located to heavy energy load, whether that is the hospital or a sheet metal fabrication facility or the substation itself," Lytle-Bonine said.
According to the Electric Power Research Institute, there have been 24 system failures at battery storage facilities in the U.S. since 2011. Nine occurred in California, four in San Diego County.
Lytle-Bonine says before AES begins to build the facility they'll have to prove that a fire could not spread beyond a single battery container, about the size of a trailer.
"We consider ourselves leaders in the industry on how to develop and implement lessons learned to make our projects really safe," Lytle-Bonine said.
