Our globally renowned expertise in flammable and explosion hazard identification coupled with our testing and R&D capabilities allows us to help you focus on improving the reliability of battery systems and explore ways to safely extend the useful life of these systems. As the world sees a push towards a more sustainable energy mix, batteries and BESS are quickly becoming a critical element in the sustainable energy infrastructure by providing the capability to even out the energy flow from wind and solar production. Batteries allow the ability to store excess electricity during periods of over supply to ensure availability to provide a consistent supply to the commercial grid. With the push for electrical vehicles and utilities converting to hybrid energy solutions, battery size and energy capacity will need to increase to meet demand.
Providers and users of battery storage systems need to consider the potential hazards associated with their manufacture and operation. The 2017–2018 BESS fires in South Korea as well as the 2019 BESS explosion in Arizona clearly illustrate the need for proactive safety analysis of BESS infrastructure. With BakerRisk’s experience in evaluating fire and blast hazards for many industries including battery manufacturing and testing enclosures for major automotive manufacturers, our experts can help you to provide safe and reliable battery energy solutions to consumers worldwide.
BakerRisk’s Hazard and Risk Mitigation and Performance and Reliability for battery production and BESS include:
- Building Design Risk Mitigation
- Design of vented deflagration systems
- Design of battery test enclosures for blast hazards
- Design, layout, and implementation of batteries and storage facilities
- Incident Investigation and Litigation Support
- Forensic investigation
- Root cause analysis
- Consequence and Risk Analysis
- Evaluating hazards (toxics, fire, and blast)
- Flammable organic electrolyte
- Runaway potential
- Outgassing potential
- Stored energy
- Evaluating hazards (toxics, fire, and blast)
- Transportation Risk Assessments including Network and Business Interruption Potential
- Loss Prevention Studies
- Arc flash analysis
- Fire protection review and design
- Hazardous area classification recommendations for battery manufacturing facilities
- Testing
- Battery cycle testing with UL 1641, UL 1973, and UL 9540
- Consulting on periodic functional testing of batteries – developing procedures and helping with the testing
- Materials Science
- Guidance on battery technologies and evaluation to help determine the best battery system for the application
- Materials characterization
- Others
- Battery management system (BMS) and energy management system (EMS) design – IEEE 1541 and UL 1741
- Helping to understand battery sparks that can start a wildfire
Related Services
Loss Prevention Studies
BakerRisk utilizes a data-driven analytical approach to analyze and design optimal loss prevention and mitigation solutions.
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Best Practices & White Papers
- Gabriel Shelton
- Anibal Morones, PhD