Three tips from Firetrace International for safer lithium battery handling and storage

Firetrace international gives three tips for how to more safely handle and manage lithium battery systems, as reported by PV-magazine.com: Divide large BESSs into smaller ones, install battery control systems and use automatic sprinklers.  

Photo above by the fire services of NSW

High-profile lithium-ion battery fires have given rise to growing concerns regarding their safety and exposed a lack of understanding about the risks associated with this type of technology. Specifically, fire incidents in battery energy storage systems (BESS) have been thought of by some to be harmful to the industry, resulting in postponement and even cancellation of projects in some parts of the world.

High-profile lithium-ion battery fires have given rise to growing concerns regarding their safety and exposed a lack of understanding about the risks associated with this type of technology. Specifically, fire incidents in battery energy storage systems (BESS) have proved to be harmful to the industry, resulting in postponement and even cancellation of projects in some parts of the world.

A new report released by Firetrace International, a US-based fire suppression technology supplier, says that “there is a real danger public opposition to energy storage could grow significantly as a result of fire risk fears, threatening critical battery deployment and, as a result, net zero goals.”

• Installing water-based fire suppression systems, which are the most effective at cooling a fire in an energy storage system (However, it is important to note here that water-based fire extinguishers can cool down the battery and help prevent the spread of the fire but will not extinguish the fire on the battery until its energy is dissipated.)
• Including a battery management system to monitor, control, and optimize the performance of an individual or multiple battery modules and to enable disconnection
• Grouping energy storage units into small segments limited to certain amounts of kWh and spaced from other segments and walls

Read the entire article on Pv_magazine.com