Morro Bay group wants to block Vistra battery energy storage plant 

A group of Morro Bay citizens is collecting signatures for an initiative that could potentially bring the controversial proposal to build a battery storage plant to voters.

"The initial concern arose when we found out that they were possibly going to build a lithium battery storage a quarter mile away from our local high school," Barry Branin told New Times. "The overall environmental concerns that this facility would bring are too big to not oppose having it built right next to our community."

Over the past three months, Branin and several Morro Bay residents formed Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation and have worked on a way to formally oppose building on what they consider to be an undisturbed and unindustrialized part of the city.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Vistra
• BATTERIES ON THE BAY Building a battery energy storage facility in Morro Bay will include heavy construction along Embarcadero as well as the eventual demolition of the former power plant's iconic triple smokestacks.

"We gathered up some money together, hired a land use attorney, wrote an initiative, and submitted it to the city on May 1," he said. "We got it back Tuesday, May [16], from the city with the name and title of the initiative and can now begin the process of collecting signatures to potentially bring this issue to the voters at the ballot."

Morro Bay Interim City Manager Greg Carpenter told New Times that the city holds no official position on either side of the issue because the initiative is still in its early stages of gathering signatures.

"The process occurs in stages, and we are basically still in the first phase," Carpenter said. "The city will not formally take a position until much later in the process."

According to Vistra, the company proposing to build on the 107-acre former power plant property adjacent to downtown Morro Bay, the battery plant would be a 600-megawatt battery energy storage system constructed on 24 acres of land. The project, Vistra said, is still contingent on the company providing the public with a report of the potential environmental impacts the facility could have.

Those potential environmental impacts are exactly what have citizens like Branin so concerned.

Branin told New Times that two fires broke out in 2022 at a partially Vistra-run battery energy storage facility in Moss Landing, leading a nearby high school to shelter in place.

However, Vistra Media Relations Manager Jenny Lyon clarified to New Times that the two fires Branin spoke of were actually one fire that took place at a PG&E-operated facility next to Vistra's Moss Landing Plant. She said that Vistra did have an incident at its Moss Landing facility that was the result of faulty water-based heat suppression system, adding that the company took company-wide corrective actions to reduce future battery incidents.

Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation is not anti-renewable energy, Branin said, and they understand that a facility like this would serve the city well as they head into a greener energy future. He added that his group just doesn't think that the facility needs to be built so close to such a major area of commerce and ecology.

"Our group is all-in on green energy. I mean we are teachers and engineers, so we believe renewable energy facilities like this are the key to the future," he said. "Perhaps this unit would be better placed somewhere else, away from the residents and our bay."

Correction: This article was updated to correct information about the fires that broke out in a Moss Landing battery storage facility last year. We incorrectly identified the name of the facility where the fires occurred. Two fires broke out on the same day at PG&E's Tesla-supplied Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility in September 2022. The incident led to a highway closure and shelter-in-place order. A Vistra-run battery storage facility in Moss Landing did experience an incident involving issues with its water system, but there wasn't a fire. New Times regrets the error.