Battery Energy Storage Roadmap/SAFE

SAFE battery energy storage uses proven hazard mitigations and leading practices across the project life cycle that address safety risks and comply with codes to uphold public and worker health and safety, environmental justice, and equity.

Aspects of the Future State

A future in which battery energy storage is SAFE requires:

• Hazard characterization, including research in material safety at various operating conditions, for commercial and emerging BESS technologies for improved risk assessment and implementation of safety strategies that consider all project stakeholders.
• Innovation upon existing fire and explosion prevention and protection knowledge to develop applicable monitoring and modeling tools, effective technology solutions, and relevant emergency action plans.
• Collaboration and sharing of experiences to advance common leading practices across the industry and enhance the development of sensible and comprehensive codes, standards, and regulations.
• Community authorities (authorities having jurisdiction) to be equipped with the necessary resources and tools to ensure battery energy storage upholds public health, safety, environmental justice, and equity.
• Engagement, education, and effective communication with the public to share safety strategies that consider BESS benefits, risks, and community concerns.

Current State and Gaps

The Current State of safety related to each project Life Cycle Phase gives context to the identified Gaps that EPRI and others can address to advance deployment of safe battery energy storage.

Life Cycle Phase	Current State	Gaps
Planning	Potential opposition from agencies and communities that may be unaware or misinformed about the environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) attributes of BESS creates challenges in facility siting and permitting.	Community engagement strategies, including targeted communication resources, that justify a social license to operate Community engagement costs to inform project planning EH&S data and modeling of system failure impacts for siting
Procurement	Overall BESS safety can be improved with uniform system designs but is delayed by inconsistent jurisdictional requirements and underdeveloped safety guidance for emerging technology hazards and risk.	Common safety requirements specified in requests for proposal for utility, customer-sited, and microgrid systems Common hazard assessment frameworks for comparison and selection of BESS technologies
Deployment & Integration	Discordant development schedules for battery energy storage technologies and the codes, standards, and regulations needed to enforce safety are a cyclic obstacle that slows mutually beneficial advancements needed to accelerate and bolster safety in BESS deployments.	Safety-informed deployment strategies that apply technology-specific safety considerations, equipment, and practices throughout deployment and integration planning and activities Characterization of EH&S hazards and risks that inform engineering design and deployment practices Common safety checklists of issues for which a jurisdiction can look for mitigations in the design/plans
Operations & Maintenance	Maintaining safe operation that does not compromise system reliability and profitability requires improved monitoring, data, and documentation of existing systems.	Safety-informed operation strategies, such as the impact of state-of-charge limitations on system use case and profitability, to inform asset management and technoeconomic analyses Safety system O&M guidelines for utility, customer-sited, and microgrid systems
Decommissioning	Safe BESS decommissioning practices are not well characterized nor developed, especially for damaged energy storage systems, and guidance is lacking as few systems have yet reached end-of-life (EOL).	Decommissioning protocols informed by EH&S hazard characterizations of technologies near EOL and include guidance on de-energization and safe handling De-energization technologies for decommissioning damaged and failed systems

EPRI's Role in SAFETY

EPRI is engaged in applied research and project activities for BESS safety. The projects listed below are a representative sample from the breadth of EPRI’s activities related to this Future State Pillar. EPRI resources related to BESS safety can be found on the EPRI resources page.

Battery Energy Storage Fire Prevention & Mitigation (free to the public)

This project develops new research, guidance, and tools to support safety deployment of lithium ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) across the project lifecycle. The current Phase III of the project is focused on thermal runaway characterization, failure incident response, safe O+M practices among other topics.

Case Studies for Energy Storage Decommissioning

This research priority details lessons learned from real-world decommissioning scenarios, such as the Cedartown BESS (free to the public), and applies updated decommissioning cost methodologies to a wider range of energy storage technologies and facility designs.

Qualitative Risk Assessment (QRA) for Stationary BESS

This project combines data and insights from EPRI’s portfolio of hazard assessment, system reliability, and environmental/health impacts research to create QRA case studies.

EPRI's BESS Failure Incident Database

EPRI tracks and collates BESS failure incidents around the globe. The database was created to inform stakeholders and the public on BESS failures. Failure incidents included in the database are classified as Stationary Energy Storage Failure Incidents or Other Storage Failure Incidents, which includes failures that are related to the manufacture, transportation, storage, and recycling of battery energy storage. EPRI uses the database to track trends in failure incidents and provide failure root cause insights (free to the public).