Safety of Grid Scale Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage Systems

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– 4 – June 5, 2021
1. Introduction
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are currently the battery of choice in the ‘electrification’ of our transport, energy storage, mobile telephones, mobility scooters etc. Working as designed, their operation is uneventful, but there are growing concerns about the use of Lithium-ion batteries in large scale applications, especially as Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) linked to renewable energy projects and grid energy storage. These concerns arise from the simple consideration that large quantities of energy are being stored, which if released uncontrollably in fault situations could cause major damage to health, life, property and the environment.
Table 1. Comparison of some recent “battery fires” since 2014.
Note: this is not a comprehensive list of all Li-ion BESS battery “fires.”
Location
Size
Time to
Water
Comments
Houston,
“Battery fire” cause
Driverless vehicle crash
bring under
needed
control
4 hours
for cooling
30,000 (US)
Tesla Model S
Texas, April
gallons
0.1
MWh 2021
South Korea
Drogenbos,
Various;
21 fires
Not known to Korean
Not known.
various
Not known
Not known
522 out of 1490
during
2018-19
1 MWh
Ministry of Trade Industry
“rapidly
ESS facilities in
and Energy
Korea suspended
(Korea Times 2
May 2019)
Occurred during
Belgium. 2017
extinguished”
commissioning of
system by ENGIE
McMicken
2019
2 MWh
Thermal runaway in a
2 hours from
Facility
first report to
Explosion as H2 and CO mixed with air and ignited. Critically injured 4 fire- fighters. Extensive forensic report.
Arizona, USA.
crash.
Carnegie Rd,
single rack out of 27 that
were in the cabin – hence
74 kWh electrochemical
energy released – less
than the Tesla Model S
Not known
“deflagration”
11 hours
Liverpool, UK,
20
MWh
2020 still unpublished.
Even battery electric vehicle (BEV) batteries store energy sufficient for “fires” that have taken hours to control. A Tesla Model S crashed In Texas on the weekend of 17-18 April 2021 igniting a BEV battery fire that took 4 hours to control with water quantities variously reported [2] as 23,000 (US) gallons or 30,000 gallons (87 -115 m3). Yet the energy storage capacity in even the latest Tesla Model S vehicles is only 100 kWh. This is 1/20 the size of the BESS in Arizona [3] which failed in 2019, and 1/200 the size of the BESS in Liverpool [4] which caught fire [5] in September 2020, and 1/7000 the capacity of the Cleve Hill Solar Farm and Battery Store [6] approved in May 2020.
The past decade has seen a number of serious incidents in grid-scale BESS, which are summarised in Table 1. Despite these incidents, and our growing understanding of these, these large scale Li-ion BESS are not currently regarded by HSE as regulated under the COMAH
Full report [1]
delayed 4 months;