Fire accidents occur frequently in energy storage power stations around the world. As the energy storage industry enters a period of rapid development, there is more and more attention and discussion in society about energy storage safety, and a series of relevant standards are also being drafted and formulated. Guiding the energy storage industry to a healthy, safe and sustainable development as soon as possible has become the common goal of all sectors of society.
Accidents of energy storage battery may come from complicate causes. Because the containerized lithium-ion battery energy storage system is based on a standard container as carrier, The lithium-ion battery, battery management system, monitoring system, air conditioning system, fire protection system and power distribution system are integrated in the container to achieve a highly integrated, large-capacity and mobile energy storage device. However, The lithium-ion battery has a high energy density, and the solvent of its electrolyte is usually organic carbonate compounds, which has low flash point, high chemical activity and easy combustion. Even if protective measures are considered in the container design, it is still difficult to avoid the internal thermal runaway of the energy storage battery caused by overcharging, overdischarge, short circuit and mechanical damage of the lithium battery, which leads to a chain reaction such as explosion and combustion. Due to the integrated design of lithium-ion batteries in the container, when a group of lithium batteries occurs thermal runaway, it will produce a strong thermal shock to the surrounding batteries, resulting in thermal runaway spread, while generating a large number of paraffin flammable gases, which may cause serious fire or even explosion accidents.
How to manage ESS to reduce the risks of accidents? The current way is devide the ESS into three sectors of battery layout, safety monitoring and fire distinguishing. The energy storage container is consisted of battery clusters which is further devided into packs to seperate the units to prevent heating transmission and keep the risk source in limited space.
The battery safety monitoring system can be installed to monitor and optimize the performance of single or multiple circuit systems or battery systems, and can perform circuit disconnection operations based on the real-time status of the circuit system. The popular BMS battery management system today can be regarded as a battery management system that senses voltage, current, temperature and other parameters of the circuit system.
Install fire fighting systems. When a fire occurs in an energy storage station, the fire protection system can cool down the area where the fire occurred, lowering the temperature of the battery and preventing the fire from spreading further. Aerosol fire extinguisher is also activated to put out the fire rapidly.
How to detect the potential risks or early indicators for accidents and activate protection device? Sensors and detectors play an important role for each area of management and monitoring. Current and voltage sensors are able to monitor abnormal change of the current and voltage. When there is overheating or leakage risks, off-gas such as CO, H2, VOC, aerosol can be detector by the gas sensors. Other indicator changes of pressure, temperature, humidity and flame can also be monitored. The detectors connected with security management system to give early alarm and start fire protection system.
Huiwen provides spatial point detection, battery cabinet (cluster-level detection), and battery pack (pack-level detection) sensor solutions for energy storage security systems to achieve combined detection of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, smoke, VOC, aerosol, temperature and humidity etc in the early stage of battery leakage or thermal runaway, using professional sensing technology to protect the safety of energy storage.
Safety is the bottom line for the high-quality development of the energy storage industry. The use of multi-sensor fusion technology to achieve systematic and refined control of energy storage safety, and the establishment of multiple safety protection systems for energy storage is still the direction. Increasing energy densities and higher technology complexity are accompanied by greater demands on precision management and the reliability of safety systems.
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