
Page | 001 RISK ENGINEERING TECHNICAL INFORMATION PAPER SERIES | FIRE HAZARDS OF BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FIRE HAZARDS OF BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FIRE HAZARDS With the rapid growth of battery energy systems also comes certain hazards including fire risk associated with the battery chemistries deployed. Read further to better understand and help mitigate potential hazards. BACKGROUND With the growth of renewable energy sources for commercial, residential, and industrial applications over the past few decades, the battery energy storage system is a relatively new technology finding its way into many business operations to better support this planned and anticipated growth. The US utility PV market is expected to increase capacity by over 400 gigawatts over the next 10 years, and energy storage is a key component to supporting that level of capacity expansion. The BESS is one of three general types of energy storage systems found in use in the market today. These include Thermal Storage Systems, Mechanical Systems and Battery Energy Storage Systems. The basic premise on all three general categories of energy storage is a technology which stores energy collected from a wide variety of sources and maintains that energy until it is called upon or demanded from equipment or a service. Each technology has unique equipment and operational characteristics that intend to assure that energy is available at times of peak rates from the utility grid, or at times of power loss due to major disruption, including power blackouts or natural hazard disruption. The current and future expected rapid growth of battery energy systems can be explained by their cost of implementation, resilience, environmental efficiency, smart energy consumption, smaller footprint of installation, and their ability to quickly transfer from charge to discharge upon demand. Despite their benefits, battery energy storage systems (BESS) do present certain hazards to its continued operation, including fire risk associated with the battery chemistries deployed. 1 The Buck’s Got Your Back® |