Causes and Countermeasures of Accidents in Energy Storage Power Stations

Causes and countermeasures of accidents in energy storage power stations

Table of Contents


In recent years, accidents have occurred frequently in China’s energy storage power stations. This article will analyze the reasons and preventive measures.

What is an energy storage power station

The energy storage power station is actually a power station set up to adjust the peak valley power consumption problem. As we all know, the electricity consumption of residents for production and living will fluctuate greatly within 24 hours due to people’s living habits.

Much more electricity is used during the day and before 12pm than after 12pm. Although it is possible to adjust the power consumption by controlling the power of the power plant, it is still unable to adapt to such a large change, and a lot of electricity is wasted.

Therefore, the establishment of energy storage power stations, simply put, is to store the electricity that we have to waste during the low-peak period of electricity consumption.It is released to the grid again during peak electricity consumption to achieve the purpose of shaving peaks and filling valleys.

Why did the energy storage power station explode

In recent years, the energy storage market has gradually heated up, various capitals have entered one after another, and safety issues have gradually emerged. Safety issues have always been a major challenge for the energy storage industry. Electric power experts pointed out that the overall safety of energy storage power plants includes electrical safety, fire safety, chemical safety and mechanical safety.

Different forms of energy storage have different safety risks. For example, lithium-ion battery energy storage, sodium-sulfur battery energy storage and hydrogen energy storage need to focus on their fire safety and flow battery energy storage needs to focus on chemical safety, and flywheel energy storage needs to focus on mechanical safety.

Why did the energy storage power station explode

Lithium-ion battery energy storage power station is the largest energy storage power station in the world, and it is also the most prone to fire. Since 2017, there have been more than 30 fire accidents in many countries, and several power station fires have occurred in China, causing heavy casualties or property losses, which has aroused the industry’s attention to the safety of energy storage fires.

The fire process of an energy storage power station is a process of evolving from local hidden dangers to failure events. The hidden dangers and evolution of safety risks exist in any link of the whole life cycle process of energy storage power stations, such as equipment selection, system integration, installation and commissioning, operation and maintenance, and facility scrapping.

People in the energy storage industry said that if investors are more concerned about price and cost, risk control and safety of products may be neglected. From the analysis of energy storage power station accidents in other countries, accidents are generally accompanied by a lack of supervision.

Electric power experts take lithium-ion battery energy storage as an example to analyze that the accident causes of energy storage power stations generally come from three aspects.

The first is the human factor. Energy storage is a high-energy , high voltage battery system. During the process of integration, installation, commissioning, and operation, if the on-site personnel make mistakes or improperly handle the site, safety problems are likely to occur. Therefore, it is necessary to have strict safety awareness and safety operation training for operators and construction personnel.

Different forms of energy storage have different safety risks

The second is the factors of the energy storage system itself, including whether the selected battery has passed the relevant safety standards, whether the health status of the battery system is good, whether the insulation design of the high-voltage system is good, and whether the defects of the battery itself can be found and disposed of in time.

Thirdly, there are factors other than the energy storage system. External electrical and thermal disturbances will affect the energy storage system. Therefore, there are generally requirements for the environment of the energy storage system, such as avoiding excessive ambient temperature. Therefore, relevant policies indicate that large-scale energy storage power stations shall not use ternary lithium battery and sodium-sulfur batteries.

What caused the explosion of the energy storage power station

So, what causes the explosion of the energy storage power station? Electricity experts said, generally from two aspects. One is other sources of non-energy storage systems, because in addition to energy storage systems, energy storage power stations also contain many electrical equipment and ancillary facilities, which are a type of explosion source.

The other is the energy storage system itself, more specifically the energy storage battery. The energy storage battery is stimulated by external electric and thermal shock sources. The battery will undergo a thermal runaway reaction, releasing a large amount of high-temperature flammable gas-liquid mixture, which, when exposed to oxygen in the outside air, will explode when the conditions are right.

Of course, industry insiders pointed out that the safety management of the power station itself is also very important. For example, consideration should be given to the timely and safe evacuation of personnel in the event of an accident.

What causes the energy storage power station to explode

How to prevent the risk of energy storage power station

Today, energy storage safety has become one of the key concerns around the world. Because once a fire occurs, not only will the property of the enterprise suffer, but also the life safety of the staff and firefighters will be threatened. In 2019, an explosion of a battery energy storage project in Arizona, USA, directly injured four firefighters, two of them seriously.

On April 6, 2021, the energy storage system (ESS) of a photovoltaic power station in South Korea caught fire, burning an area of 22 square meters, causing a total loss of about 440 million won (about 2.58 million RMB). After a preliminary investigation, the relevant departments pointed out that the ignition point occurred inside the energy storage unit, involving a battery supplier.

According to industry insiders, some energy storage power stations in China have indeed experienced fires before. For example, on the afternoon of April 16, 2021, a fire and explosion occurred at a lithium battery energy storage power station on the South Fourth Ring Road in Beijing, resulting in the sacrifice of two firefighters.

How to ensure the safe operation of energy storage power stations

Electricity experts said that the safety problem of energy storage power stations is not unsolved. The potential safety hazards and their evolution should be effectively managed and controlled during the entire life cycle of the energy storage power station. In view of the hidden dangers of energy storage accidents, three preventive measures need to be taken.

How to ensure the safe operation of energy storage power stations

The first measure is to strengthen the safety protection of the energy storage system, prevent or reduce the impact of external stimuli on the battery body, actively suppress the amplification of hidden dangers, prevent the spread of local accidents, and prevent the partial failure of the energy storage system from evolving into a global fire.

The second is to strengthen the detection and early warning capability of the energy storage power station. The combustion and explosion reaction of the energy storage battery is sudden, but the external stimulus that triggers the combustion and explosion of the energy storage battery is traceable;

The third is to formulate fault emergency plans and fire control measures for different types of energy storage accidents, and strictly abide by them, first to ensure the safety of personnel.

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