The perils of battery storage are complex. Do your clients know what they’re up against?

The risks facing battery storage projects

As a new technology, the risks around Battery Energy Storage are still evolving. If installed and managed correctly the risk of battery failure is seen to be small. Despite this the Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery storage industry has been plagued by a series of project fires, most notably in South Korea. These events caused varying levels of damage to the battery systems themselves, but in April 2019, an explosion at a battery storage project owned by the utility Arizona Public Service (APS), destroyed the project and injured four firefighters.⁴

If a battery is going to catch fire, the likely cause is thermal runaway. This is when a battery experiences an increase in temperature that eventually leads to cell short-circuiting or disintegration that can spark a fire.

There are three main abuse factors that can send a Li-Ion battery into thermal runaway: mechanical, thermal or electrical.