2024 Energy Storage Summit USA EPRI Resources

Deploying Storage in an Urban Space

Media coverage of hazardous incidents involving lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles, renewable energy storage, and consumer electronics has caused growing public concern of the safety of battery energy storage systems (BESS) installed in populated areas, especially in cities. The occurrence and reporting of these events underscores the need for continuous safety advances through technical due diligence, evolving codes, and coordinated education to contextually understand, mitigate, and communicate BESS hazards and consequences.

Founded in Palo Alto in 1972, EPRI is an independent non-profit energy research, development, and deployment organization with a foundational mission to benefit society. EPRI delivers independent, objective thought leadership and industry expertise to help the energy sector identify issues, technology gaps, and broader needs that can be addressed through effective, collaborative research and development programs. EPRI is an industry leader in energy storage safety and has developed many tools and resources to move the industry towards a safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy storage future.

This page highlights EPRI's ongoing energy storage safety research program and provides links resources that support and inform decisions around safety of energy storage systems deployed in urban spaces.

EPRI's Energy Storage Safety Research

Fire Prevention and Mitigation for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

Funding Partners			Advisory Panel
Alliant Energy	Excelon	Southern Company	CAC Specialty	Hiller Fire
Arizona Public Service	FM Global	Salt River Project	ESRG	Jensen Hughes
Con Edison	LADWP	SMUD	Exponent	NREL
Duke Energy	PG&E	Synergy (Australia)	NFPA	PNNL
Enel	RES	TVA	Hazard Dynamics	UL
Eskom (South Africa)	SCE		HSE (UK)	UT Austin

With a foundational mission to benefit society, EPRI delivers independent, objective thought leadership and industry expertise to the energy sector. EPRI’s portfolio in energy storage includes a collaborative, multi-phase project to understand and close gaps in energy storage safety and subsequent impacts. Our work brings together industry experts to generate new knowledge, identify best practices, and develop a safety toolkit. The research is made publicly available to advance the industry.

EPRI's Battery Energy Storage Fire Prevention and Mitigation project is in Phase 3. Initiated in 2021, Phase 1 of this project consolidated the experience of 15 utility members, 15 non-utility experts, and 10 energy storage site evaluations to identify gaps in safe design and operations of today’s ESS. Phase 2 created a lifecycle safety toolkit, including a retrofit guide, a codes and standards review, emergency response plan guidelines, and more. Moving forward, EPRI will use prior learnings and a new safety roadmap activity to prioritize and further extend the toolkit resources. Industry insights will be incorporated to guide utility owners, operators, and off-takers in their design, procurement, planning, and incident response.

Funding participants include 17 major utilities, project developers and insurance companies across the United States and world. The advisory team consists of diverse stakeholders such as National Labs, Fire Departments, fire safety experts, insurance agencies, and academic institutions.

To explore opportunities for collaboration and provide input in Phase 3 of the project, contact Storage-Safety@epri.com.

BESS Failure Event Database

Reviewing failures of urban installations may provide insights for improved safety and reliability. The database is a public resource for documenting publicly-available data on battery energy storage failure events from around the world. All information included is available in linked public documents that provide information such as system details, location, application, and a description of the failure event. To date, the database catalogs over 100 incidents in utility and commercial/industrial installations, electric transportation, recycling, manufacturing, and warehousing since 2011. EPRI has begun to dive deeper in assessing database statistics around root cause in an effort to measure and track safety and to see what other insights can be gained.

To submit or be notified of new entries, contact Storage-Safety@epri.com.

Carnegie Road ESS Failure Response, Recovery, and Rebuild Lessons Learned

In the early morning hours of September 15, 2020, an explosion occurred at the Carnegie Road energy storage site in the UK, followed by a fire that consumed one of three energy storage enclosures. This report conveys the lessons learned from the failure event, including aspects of emergency response, root cause investigation, and the redesign and rebuild process. The document conveys the general information about the failure event and the subsequent process to educate the industry and facilitate the development of best practices. The report highlights the need for clear communication around design features and failure event details, including the development of a post-incident plan.

Select Safety Resources

Deliverable Title	Product ID (with link)	Year Published
The Evolution of Battery Energy Storage Safety Codes and Standards	3002028521	2023
Safety Implications of Lithium Ion Chemistries	3002028522	2023
Carnegie Road ESS Failure Response, Recovery, and Rebuild Lessons Learned	3002026396	2023
Air Modeling Simulations of Battery Energy Storage System Fires	3002021777	2022
Difference Between Thermal Runaway and Fire Ignition of a Lithium Ion Battery	3002025283	2022
Battery Storage Fire Safety Roadmap	3002022540	2021
Lessons Learned: Lithium Ion Battery Storage Fire Prevention and Mitigation—2021	3002021208	2021
Battery Energy Storage Systems Explosion Hazards	3002022706	2021
Proactive First Responder Engagement for Battery Energy Storage System Owners and Operators	3002021774	2021

EPRI's Community Aspects of Energy Storage Research

Understanding the impacts of energy storage deployment on communities is critical for mitigating community- or public-driven memorandums and project cancellations. EPRI is an industry leader in how to consider and incorporate equity and environmental justice in energy projects. Regarding BESS, specifically, EPRI is developing guidance on community-based considerations that should be included in all phases of the project life cycle.

Lithium Ion Batteries in the news

Grid-scale BESS failure rates have decreased due to safety improvements, driven in part by increased regulation.

A theme throughout EPRI's work understanding the energy storage project impacts on communities and vice versa is the need for effective communication and public education and awareness that provides context for safety, equity, and environmental justice. The industry and regulatory requirements for electric vehicle and stationary energy storage system batteries are much more rigorous than those used in e-mobility devices, such as e-scooters and e-bikes that have caused or contributed to many fires throughout New York City over the past five years, some of which have resulted in death. EPRI did a review of grid-scale energy storage deployments and failure rates and found that large-scale BESS failure rates have decreased substantially since 2018 while cumulative capacity of deployed BESS has grown significantly.

Key takeaways from this study include:

• While lithium ion battery fires have gained media attention, the technology’s overall safety record is

strong and continuously improving.

• The likelihood and severity of fire and explosion associated with lithium ion batteries can be reduced through good design, which is already commonplace in batteries designed for electric vehicle (EV) and grid storage.
• Batteries used in passenger electric vehicles and grid storage are subject to safety certification and testing that substantially reduce the frequency and severity of failures.
• Micro-mobility products have exhibited higher rates of failure and failure intensity, most likely related to less mature quality control implementation, fewer regulatory safety protections, and common use of unapproved aftermarket components.

Large-format batteries used in passenger EVs and grid-scale storage are subject to certification and testing that reduce the frequency and severity of failures. Even with the rapid growth in deployments, failure incidents in these applications are infrequent. Regardless, failures are an avoidable tragedy, and the lessons learned must be applied to further reduce the possibility of future incidents. With proper installation and planning, failures that occur can be managed safely. Lessons learned from events have been applied to new storage facilities and are being integrated into building and fire codes and standards. In contrast, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission reports suggest micro-mobility products require increased implementation of quality controls and certification to reduce the increasing frequency of failure incidents. Lithium ion battery safety is an ongoing focus area for research, regulatory development, and continuing education.

Community-Based Siting and Permitting for Grid-Scale Lithium Ion Battery Storage

As operational and proposed BESS facilities proliferate in the US and other countries, challenges to siting and permitting are emerging due to a combination of factors, some generic and others unique to battery energy storage technology. Large energy infrastructure projects generally face multi-agency reviews and the potential for community-based input and opposition. BESS-specific challenges revolve around the novelty of lithium ion battery technology and its environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) attributes. Of particular concern are the misinterpretation of news reports relating to fire safety and the broad availability of inaccurate and misleading information about observed failure events at utility-scale facilities. These messages are drawing a poor public perception of the technology, slowing energy storage adoption, and could have significantly delay the clean energy transition.

Utilities and energy storage developers need to manage the intersection of distinct developments that are occurring in the technology, market, and regulatory spaces. This can be challenging for understanding how to use energy storage and where to put it to meet electricity needs and ensure safety and environmental responsibility. EPRI has done a review of lithium ion BESS regulatory requirements across the country and is engaged with various energy storage project stakeholders to document their perspectives and experiences with siting and permitting. The intent is to provide insight and context to how energy storage is treated in different jurisdictions and provide guidance to utility planners, project developers, government agencies, jurisdictional authorities, the public, and other stakeholders on leading practices for engaging, communicating, and collaborating with each other to overcome BESS siting and permitting barriers and deliver benefits at the local, regional, national, and global levels.

Community Benefit Planning for Energy Storage Projects

EPRI is collating its collection of Community Benefits Plans (CBPs) for current and proposed energy storage projects that have been included in applications seeking federal support. CBP development is an opportunity for electric power companies to identify and make explicit the community benefits that projects would provide and include actionable activities within the project plan that improve the standing of communities that have been historically marginalized. The Department of Energy (DOE) requires CBPs to include actions that help to address one or more of the following categories:

• Workforce and Job Training;
• Education;
• Environmental Justice;
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility (DEIA); and
• Environment

EPRI's review of the CBPs found many categorical overlaps of CBP activities. For example, job training for community members with disabilities fits within the Workforce and Job Training and DEIA categories. Similarly, creating scholarships or internships for diverse college or university students satisfies both Education and DEIA.

Themes in CBP impact emerge as they are distilled down to the actionable activities. These themes do not necessarily align with the DOE's categories, but they are needed to create metrics for evaluating the efficacy of the proposed activities in the CBPs as these energy storage project develop. These themes can also help in developing measurable actions in future CBPs.

Summary results of various energy storage technologies by EH&S Category for both normal operation and abnormal events.

Environmental Aspects of Utility-Scale Energy Storage Systems

The Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S) impacts of energy storage technologies need to be included in project planning. Understanding EH&S impacts during normal operation and abnormal events (e.g., failure scenarios) operation can help to inform siting location and system layout, determine what protective systems or equipment are needed on site, develop an effective emergency response plan, and more. EPRI has developed a framework for comparing the EH&S impacts associated with commercially-viable ESS technologies and continues to update the framework and analysis of various technologies as their commercial viability changes. EPRI will be revisiting this EH&S scorecard in 2024 to include a variety of advanced-lithium and non-lithium-based technologies.

Select Community Aspects of Energy Storage Resources

Deliverable Title	Product ID (with link)	Year Published
Technology Innovation Spotlight: Lithium Ion Battery Fires in the News	3002028411	2023
Cedartown Battery Energy Storage System Decommissioning Case Study	3002027944	2023
Equity and Environmental Justice Aspects Across the Energy System	3002027134	2023
Repowering Coal-Fired Power Plants for Battery Energy Storage	3002025591	2023
Climate-Informed Planning and Adaptation for Power Sector Resilience	3002026317	2023
Environmental Justice and Renewable Energy and Storage	3002024572	2022
Equitable Decarbonization Research Roadmap	3002024030	2022
Equity and Environmental Justice for a Clean Energy Transition	3002021206	2021
Environmental Aspects of Utility-Scale Energy Storage Systems	3002016593	2020

About EPRI

Together...Shaping the Future of Energy

With a foundational mission to benefit society, EPRI delivers independent, objective thought leadership and industry expertise to help the energy sector identify issues, technology gaps, and broader needs that can be addressed through effective, collaborative research and development programs.

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Founded in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1972, EPRI is an independent non-profit energy research, development, and deployment organization, with three specialized labs. EPRI also maintains an employee presence in more than a dozen countries in Europe/Middle East/Africa, as well as Asia, and the Americas through its subsidiary EPRI International Inc. and its Ireland-based research arm, EPRI Europe DAC. EPRI's trusted experts collaborate with more than 450 companies in 45 countries, driving innovation to ensure the public has clean, safe, reliable, affordable, and equitable access to electricity across the globe.

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