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Why large-scale fire testing Is Needed for Battery Energy Storage Safety
The energy storage industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, with large installations setting new records year after year. Globally, China, North America and Europe are the major energy storage markets. In addition to this massive growth, energy storage technology continues to innovate. At the same time, there is an increasing focus on safety in the design, installation and operation of products.
The frequent occurrence of large-scale energy storage station fires around the world has exposed the shortcomings of energy storage systems in terms of safety, such as the fire at the Bartlett Energy Storage Station in Arizona, U.S. (2019), the fire at the Tesla Big Battery in Victoria, Australia (2021), and the fire at a large-scale storage station in Fukushima, Japan (2020), which have triggered widespread concern among the public and the industry about the safety performance of energy storage systems.
In this context, many safety codes and standards for battery-based energy storage have emerged.
In North America, the newest standards that govern energy storage systems are:
UL 9540, the Standard for Safety of Energy Storage Systems and Equipment, first edition published in November 2016
UL 9540A, the Test Method for Evaluating Thermal Runaway Fire Propagation in Battery Energy Storage Systems Standard, first edition published in November 2017
NFPA 855, the Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems, first edition published in September 2019
According to NFPA 855–2023 9.1.5, the Large Scale Fire test, if performed only in accordance with UL9540A, is performed in a questionable manner and is not effective in eliminating energy storage fires.
Under California Fire Code 1207.1.5, the Large Scale Fire test is mandatory for energy storage systems entering California.
On May 10, 2024, UL introduced the UL9540B test standard for experimental methods for large-scale fire testing of residential energy storage.
Globally, the IEC 62933 series has similar safety requirements as UL 9540, with IEC 62933–5–2:2020 mentioning the need for large-scale fire testing for evaluating thermal runaway of Li-based battery systems and referencing UL 9540A as an example test method. Of course, there are many additional codes and standards that apply, such as UL 1973, but these are the ones that pertain specifically to the safety and testing of battery-based energy storage systems and have only been introduced in the last few years.
Large-scale fire testing
A large-scale fire testing of energy storage systems is an important experiment conducted to assess the safety and reliability of energy storage facilities under extreme conditions.
A large-scale fire testing aims to fulfill those limitations of UL 9540A and provide additional data on what might happen if a system were to fail at a project site as well as ensure the safety features designed into the system function as intended.
The principle of large-scale fire testing is to assess the safety of an energy storage system in terms of thermal runaway, fire spread and toxic gas release by simulating the behavior of an actual energy storage system or its components under extreme fire conditions.
The thermal runaway is triggered by heating a single or multiple cells in the PACK, and an ignition needle or lance flame is used to ignite the thermal runaway gas. Gas combustion inside the compartment triggers the spread of thermal runaway of the battery cells again, and the result of continuous flame combustion is observed.
The main objective of A large-scale fire testing is to simulate the performance of the energy storage system under extreme fire conditions, to verify that when a fire occurs in the energy storage system, the test unit system cabinet explosion-proof relief meets the requirements of the actual scenario, whether the system cabinet can control the fire in the initiating unit, to ensure that the thermal loss of control or the spread of fire to the neighboring units, and whether the planned safety spacing can meet the requirements of the harsh conditions.
Huahuifire can help customers conduct large-scale fire testing to verify the response mechanism of the energy storage system in a fire, the flame propagation path, and the effectiveness of the fire suppression system, so as to evaluate the safety performance of the system and make recommendations for improvement, and to ensure that the energy storage system is able to minimize the spread of the fire, control the thermal loss of control, avoid the explosion, and effectively protect the safety of people and property in the event of a fire.