Fire risk recall for LG home battery storage equipment owners in Australia

• Buyers of home energy storage systems in Australia have been urged to check whether batteries in their gadgets come from a batch remembered because of their risk of causing fires.

The recall by manufacturer LG concerns items made throughout 2017-2018. LG issued the recall in February 2021 and also once more in May 2021, yet some 6,400 of an overall 7,256 influenced units have not been returned yet.

The batteries were discovered to be at risk of getting too hot and igniting and the governing Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is concerned that some influenced clients may not know the situation.

LG stated it has had the ability to remotely limit the State of Charge (SoC) of the systems to 75% of their capacity to avoid damages as well as has stated it will certainly replace batteries absolutely free when substitutes are available.

The possibly damaged equipment is utilized in LG Energy Solution's very own home battery energy storage systems (BESS)-- although the brand name was called LG Chem at the time of manufacture as well as sale-- as well as products by various other makers SolaX as well as Opal.

ACCC stated 9 cases have been recorded in Australia as well as five in the United States connecting to the batch of LG batteries given that October 2019. One instance of an individual being harmed has been reported in each country, along with damage to home in Australia.

Impacted batteries still installed must be switched off, regulatory authorities recommended, advising that owners need to speak with the instruction manual accompanying their system or get in touch with the manufacturer or their installer.

In August last year around 10,000 units of LG Chem RESU 10H battery storage systems in the US were remembered, manufactured at around a similar time by LG and also imported by its subsidiary LG Energy Solution Michigan.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued that second recall, after the very first in December 2020 only determined regarding 1,800 units as likely being affected. US residential solar as well as storage installment and also renting business Sunrun which sets up the 9.8 kWh RESU home batteries for its consumers claimed that about 5% of its whole energy storage set up base was influenced by the December recall alone.

The state government of Western Australia issued its own notice regarding the most recent recall recently, keeping in mind that approximately 450 of the complete 6,400 influenced systems across the nation are mounted there. The federal government statement kept in mind that some of the potentially faulty batteries were most likely installed as substitutes as part of systems with other brand, which in part prompted concerns owners may be uninformed.

SolaX, which provided about 25% of the impacted batteries, has currently accomplished its very own recall notification-- the firm provides SolaX and Opal brand storage systems-- while the remainder were installed by numerous firms consisting of significant energy stores Energy Australia as well as AGL Energy.

Anyone concerned can see ACCC's media release here, including a listing of the 10 various versions of battery system that could be impacted and have been recalled.

Safety continues to be top of the list of priorities for sector

The recall suggestion comes quickly after Energy-Storage. news heard at this month's ees Europe trade event in Germany that safety has ended up being perhaps the solitary greatest matter of issue for customers of battery storage systems.

Kai-Philipp Kairies, CEO of battery analytics company ACCURE claimed that while the risks can be lowered, took care of or reduced, it can be exceptionally destructive to confidence in the market if they go untreated and also customers are not assured. Kairies explained that Germany-- among the world's leading areas for home battery sales-- had seasoned five fire events at residential systems in on month-long period this year.

LG Energy Solution modules were discovered to have overheated at the globe's most significant battery energy storage system (BESS) project, Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California. Although it did not cause a fire, the occurrence is being checked out and caused the 1,600 MWh project being taken offline as a safety measure.

Another high profile case which thankfully caused no injuries but harmed battery equipment was the fire at the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery in the Australian state of Victoria.

In that instance, a Tesla Megapack BESS unit caught fire due to a coolant leakage, private investigators discovered, infecting an additional 3MWh Megapack and also damaging the two units. State safety regulatory authorities said they were pleased lessons had been picked up from that case as well as the project resumed its screening, coming online a few months back.