US Grid Battery Failure Rate Fell Over 97% as Fleet Grew 250-Fold

The consequence for developers is local permitting. Canary Media notes that community concern about fires has become a limiting factor on battery growth, and that California's Moss Landing fire in January 2025 is often cited when communities weigh new projects. Moss Landing largely destroyed the power plant and led to a multi-day evacuation, though nobody was injured.

Limits of the EPRI Failure Data

Srinivasan told Canary Media the sample is small. There are few failures, so the data set is not robust for statistical analysis. The tally also does not capture event size or severity: some are short events at small batteries, and a 2019 incident outside Phoenix injured four emergency responders, the only significant bodily harm from a US grid battery fire so far, per Canary Media.

The analysis combines EPRI global failure counts with US installation data, and country rules and safety standards vary. Canary Media attributes the decline to new safety standards since the first large batteries were installed, plus more mature battery designs and project layouts.

What to Watch for Local Battery Permitting

Test evidence is also accumulating at product level. As Voltgrid reported, Sungrow said a PowerTitan 3.0 fire test showed no spread at 28.56 MWh. That is a vendor-reported result under a UL standard, separate from the field failure statistics here.

Local approvals will show whether the statistics change minds. EPRI's figures are being offered as a way for communities to weigh fire risk against tax revenue, grid reliability and downward pressure on electricity costs, Canary Media said.