Fluence has dispatched a team of experts to help utility Arizona Public Service determine what caused an explosion at one of its grid-scale battery facilities. The explosion on Friday reportedly left four firefighters injured, including three who were sent to a burn center.
Fluence has dispatched a team of experts to help utility Arizona Public Service determine what caused an explosion at one of its grid-scale battery facilities. The explosion on Friday reportedly left four firefighters injured, including three who were sent to a burn center.
Firefighters responded to a call on April 19 after smoke was seen rising from APS’ McMicken Energy Storage facility, one of two identical 2-megawatt/2-megawatt-hour grid-scale batteries the utility installed in 2017 in Phoenix’s growing West Valley region.
According to local press reports, the firefighters were inspecting the facility’s lithium-ion batteries when they were hit with an explosion. Several of the firefighters received chemical burns, the local fire department told the Arizona Republic.
The firefighters were later reported to be in stable condition.
APS, the state’s largest investor-owned utility, said in a statement on Twitter that it is still investigating the cause of the “equipment failure.”
“Our top priority is the health and safety of those first responders,” the utility said in its statement. “We will continue to work closely with response agencies on scene.”
The battery systems were supplied by AES Corp., an early leader in grid storage, which last year finalized the merger of its storage business with that of Germany’s Siemens into a new company known as Fluence.
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