Energy Storage Safety
Electricity must be supplied to your home or workplace on a constant basis in order to meet your minute-by-minute energy needs. Plus Power’s standalone energy storage systems are a safe and efficient way to support the reliability of the electrical grid and reduce the potential for future blackouts as older conventional power plants retire. In fact, thousands of energy storage systems are already safely operating across the U.S. in cities, suburbs, small towns, and on farmland.
Planning for Safety
Lithium-ion batteries have been safely powering our lives - in our phones, computers and vehicles since the 1990s. The safety standards for standalone battery storage facilities have been developed and improved for decades, resulting in today’s National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 855 system standard, International Fire Code (IFC), multiple UL standards including UL 9540A for large scale battery systems failure testing, and National Electric Codes. Plus Power’s battery energy systems comply with these requirements.
Plus Power works closely with local fire departments in design, execution, and training, and we rely on former first responders who help design the national codes and standards as our project advisors. Equipment layout design is also a critical component of planning a safe facility. Maintaining access for emergency response access, as well as incorporating required separation between equipment removes the risk of propagation. Finally, battery enclosures also incorporate multiple layers of safety features, including cell level voltage and temperature monitoring; flame, gas, and/or smoke detection; and remote shutdown features in the event of any technical issue. For more information, learn about battery energy storage safety facts and industry best practices from the energy storage industry’s national trade group, the American Clean Power Association.