Energy storage power station is one of the new energy technologies that have developed rapidly in recent years, it can effectively meet the large-scale access demand of new energy in the power system, and it has obvious advantages of flexible adjustment.

Electrochemical energy storage power station is a relatively common type of energy storage power station, which exists all over the world.

With the construction and application of the energy storage power station projects, its fire risk is gradually emerging.

With the construction and application of the energy storage power station project, its fire risk is gradually emerging; the fire and explosion accident of the “4.16” energy storage power station in Beijing China has aroused strong social concern.

The fire and explosion accident of the “4.16” energy storage power station in Beijing has aroused strong social concern.

Fire Case of Energy Storage Power Station

On April 16th, 2021, a fire occurred in the first energy storage power station of Beijing Guoxuan Forrest Co., Ltd. During the disposal of the south area of the power station by the fire bridge, the north area of the power station exploded without warning, resulting in the death of two firefighters, the injury of one firefighter and the loss of contact of one employee.

In recent years, fire and explosion accidents in energy storage power stations have been common, according to statistics, there have been more than 30 fires in energy storage power stations in the world in the past year.

Since August 2017, there have been 29 fire accidents in energy storage power stations in South Korea.

In addition, on April 19, 2019, a battery energy storage project exploded in Arizona, USA, Causing four firefighters to be injured, including two seriously injured.

The energy storage power station is a place with fire and explosion hazards.

Fire Hazard of Energy Storage Power Station

Firstly, The fire hazards of energy storage power stations are mainly due to the high concentration of its battery pack; Under the influence of internal and external factors such as battery over-discharge, overheating, overcharge, mechanical collision, etc, it is easy to cause battery diaphragm collapse and internal short circuit, leading to thermal runaway.

If the thermal runaway spreads in the battery module, it will lead to a fire accident in the system. the organic solvent used in the electrolyte of the battery is mostly flammable liquid, which increases the potential fire hazard.

In addition, the frequent charging and discharging of batteries in the energy storage station and the cascade utilization of batteries will also increase the fire risk to a certain extent.

Secondly, In addition, system design defects, non-standard operation management, and incomplete fire protection are also major safety factors.

The traditional fire protection measures are difficult to effectively control the thermal runaway of the battery, which leads to the spread of the initial fire and then evolves into a large-scale fire; The toxic and combustible gases produced also pose challenges to the fire fighting and may further cause explosion accidents.

The toxic and combustible gases produced also pose challenges to firefighting and may further cause explosion accidents.

Undoubtedly, energy storage power stations are places where fires are prone to occur.

Current Situation and Thinking

• As the service life of the energy storage power station increases, the charging and discharging times of some energy storage systems are gradually approaching the design times, and the lithium battery pack reaches its service life, and its fire safety problems will gradually appear.
• In the design specification of an electrochemical energy storage power station, there are no specific fire suppression design requirements, and it is designed according to the general industrial building.
• Worldwide, the battery performance index in the energy storage system standard is a bit vague, and the requirements for emergency response and rescue measures are low, leading to oversight in supervision.
• Compared with electric vehicle power batteries, the fire hazard of energy storage systems is greater. The energy storage system is usually composed of dozens or even several dozens of modules, the thermal runaway of a single battery usually leads to the spread of fire between modules, and the probability of thermal runaway is higher.
• As a worldwide fire safety problem, lithium battery disposal needs to further deepen the research on the system safety of energy storage power stations, focusing on fire prevention and control, early warning, accident disposal, and other aspects.

How to Solve the Fire Safety Problem of Electrochemical Energy Storage Station

The potential fire hazard of energy storage stations and lithium battery systems needs fire protection. We need to design and develop a new type of highly efficient and anti-re-combustion extinguishing agent, to drive the development of the electrochemical energy storage fire protection industry.

The combination of a clean gas fire suppression system and a small aerosol fire extinguishing system can solve the fire protection problems of energy storage power stations, we can achieve a complete set of solutions for the whole system (station level, cabin level, cluster level, and pack level).

We recommend using the HFC-227ea or NOVEC 1230 extinguishing system, In particular, perfluorohexanone fire extinguishing system has better performance.

For the energy storage cluster and pack, we use small aerosol generators to protect, the lithium battery aerosol extinguisher to protect the pack, and the Minisol brand of aerosol fire extinguisher to protect the cluster.

Please note that the gas fire extinguishing system should connect with the fire alarm system, while the aerosol system can work stand-alone without connecting with any alarm systems.

Conclusion

New energy storage is a rapidly developing industry, energy storage power stations, energy storage containers and other hardware facilities in various countries are under continuous construction; this creates new opportunities and challenges for the fire protection and safety industry.

We should conduct scientific management, guide the construction of energy storage fire protection facilities, and technical innovation of fire protection products.

Energy storage practitioners should pay more attention to safety issues and jointly contribute to the safe, healthy, and sustainable development of the energy storage industry.