Neoen-run Australia energy storage project approved to resume battery testing

Sept 28 (Reuters) - French renewable energy firm Neoen SA on Tuesday said safety regulators cleared it to resume battery testing at its energy storage project near Melbourne, months after a fire broke out in a Tesla Inc's battery unit.

In July, a fire broke out in Tesla Inc's Megapack battery unit in Australia during testing of one of the world's biggest energy storage projects run by Neoen SA after a coolant leak triggered a short-circuit at two of its locations, causing the site to be disconnected from the grid.

Following an investigation into the incident, safety regulators in Victoria state gave Neoen, which runs Victorian Big Battery - one of the world's biggest energy storage projects - approval to resume energisation and testing of batteries.

"We have taken the time to understand the cause of the incident and we have implemented actions to ensure it will not happen again," Neoen Australia Managing Director Louis de Sambucy said.

The energisation testing will resume from Wednesday, Neoen said.

Although the total cost of the project is not known, Neoen won A$160 million ($116.13 million) from the Australian government earlier this year to help fund the big battery designed to produce 450 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity.

($1 = 1.3778 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)