Multi-pronged approach to ensure the safety of energy storage

■Reporter Yao Meijiao, China Energy News (2024-09-30 15th Edition)

　　In the context of energy transition, the global energy storage industry has entered the fast lane of development, and the installed capacity has grown rapidly. However, while the industry is booming, safety issues are becoming increasingly prominent, and the recent fire at the battery storage facility of the San Diego Natural Gas and Electric Company in United States has once again triggered discussions in the industry about energy storage safety.

　　As one of the most mature and widely used technologies in new energy storage, the quality and safety of lithium batteries are crucial to the stable operation of energy storage power stations. Industry insiders believe that in the future, efforts need to be made to standardize lithium battery standards, strengthen power station operation and maintenance and safety monitoring, and develop emerging energy storage technologies with stronger safety attributes to further ensure the safe and stable operation of power stations.

　　■■ Lithium battery safety is facing challenges

　　To ensure the safe operation of energy storage power stations, batteries are one of the keys to solving problems. At present, the global energy storage market is dominated by lithium-ion batteries, taking China as an example, data released by the National Energy Administration shows that by the end of 2023, lithium-ion battery energy storage has been put into operation accounting for 97.4%. However, there are a large number of batteries in energy storage power stations, and a large number of lithium batteries are concentrated together, and once safety issues such as thermal runaway, short circuits or electrolyte leaks occur, the impact is wider than that of other fields such as electric vehicles.

　　Chen Yongchong, deputy secretary-general of the Energy Storage Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, said that there are bottlenecks in lithium battery energy storage, such as the intrinsic safety of the battery cell level, and the battery cell cannot be thermal runaway and combustion explosion. "Lithium battery energy storage can't do this, so everyone has doubts about the use of lithium batteries for large-scale energy storage in the future."

　　"In terms of scenarios, the source network side has more space and time to respond to fires due to stricter requirements for fire protection structures, coupled with being far away from buildings or crowds. In contrast, it is more difficult to rescue the fire of the user-side and industrial and commercial energy storage systems, because the energy storage systems are usually located in or near the building in these scenarios. Long Zhiqiang, a senior researcher at Xinchun Information, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from China Energy News

　　There is a view in the industry that lithium iron phosphate battery technology is the main choice of lithium battery energy storage in mainland China, and in the past, overseas electrochemical energy storage devices were mostly equipped with products from related battery companies in Japan and South Korea, and ternary lithium batteries with low safety were the mainstay, which may be one of the reasons why energy storage power station accidents mostly occurred overseas. "Compared with ternary batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries do perform better in terms of safety attributes and high temperature resistance, but even so, there is no guarantee of absolute safety." Long Zhiqiang pointed out.

　　■■ Improve the management system

　　In the opinion of the interviewees, the development of the lithium battery industry has been uneven in recent years, and some low-end products have seized the market. "At the enterprise level, we should strengthen the quality control of raw materials and production processes, and relevant regulatory agencies also need to further strengthen supervision to strictly prevent low-quality products from entering the industry." Long Zhiqiang said.

　　In response to how to further ensure the safe operation of lithium battery energy storage power stations, Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the China Energy News reporter that it is necessary to further improve and establish unified and strict lithium battery safety standards. "The safety of lithium battery energy storage system is also a cost issue in a sense, and the energy storage industry is highly competitive, and buyers expect to ensure quality while reducing costs, which is difficult. In this context, the government can regulate market competition, ensure product quality, and balance the relationship between price and quality by formulating relevant standards for lithium batteries and energy storage systems, including materials, design, production, operation and maintenance, etc. ”

　　"While improving the safety standards of lithium batteries, it is also necessary to establish a complete safety management system for energy storage power stations. A certain rescue and processing capacity is configured next to the large-scale energy storage power station to enable timely response in the event of a safety accident, including equipping necessary rescue equipment and materials, and formulating a complete emergency rescue plan. Lin Boqiang further said.

　　"The energy storage power station has been in operation for more than three years, and may face problems such as aging equipment and performance decline, so it is necessary to strengthen the operation and maintenance management of the energy storage power station, and regularly carry out inspections of equipment, facilities and systems, including assessing the health status of the battery system, overhauling and replacing wires and other equipment." Long Zhiqiang pointed out . .

　　In fact, in recent years, the mainland has issued a series of national and local norms and standards for lithium batteries, and at the same time strengthened the safety supervision and management of energy storage power stations. For example, in order to further standardize the fire safety management standards in the lithium battery field and accurately prevent and resolve fire safety risks in the lithium battery industry, Changzhou issued the "Fire Safety Management Code for Lithium-ion Battery Factories" (DB3204/T 1059-2024) on March 29 this year.

　　■■ Explore emerging technologies for energy storage

　　On the whole, to ensure the safety of lithium battery energy storage, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the quality and safety of batteries, operation and maintenance safety, fire safety and other aspects. Long Zhiqiang pointed out that a series of safety requirements must be strictly followed during the transportation and use of lithium batteries. Energy storage is a system-level concept, which not only involves batteries or components, but also includes the design, manufacturing, installation, use and maintenance of the entire energy storage system, each of which needs to cooperate and carry out quality control to ensure the overall safety and reliability of the energy storage system.

　　In addition, it is worth mentioning that while the safety standards of lithium batteries are constantly improving and safety supervision is being upgraded, many energy storage companies are also committed to building safer battery bodies, developing non-combustible and non-combustible battery materials, and exploring emerging energy storage technologies, such as compressed air energy storage, flywheel energy storage, etc. At the same time, the construction of related projects is also continuing to advance - the first grid-side flywheel energy storage frequency modulation power station in mainland China, Dinglun Energy's 30 MW flywheel energy storage project, was successfully connected to the grid for power generation in Tunliu District, Changzhi City, and the Datang Zhongning 100MW/400MWh advanced compressed air energy storage project completed the hoisting of heat storage devices, and the project entered the main equipment installation stage.

　　At the policy level, we are also constantly supporting energy storage technology innovation. In July this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of a New Power System (2024-2027)", which proposes to explore the construction of a number of energy storage power stations with various technical routes such as flow batteries, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, gravity energy storage, carbon dioxide energy storage, liquid air energy storage, sodium-ion batteries, lead-carbon batteries, etc., focusing on the needs of different application scenarios for ramp rate, capacity, long-term scale adjustment, economy and safety.

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