Wärtsilä ESS fire safety screening showed battery smoke is no worse than other smoke

• Technology group Wärtsilä has actually completed UL 9540A fire safety screening of its GridSolv Quantum energy storage system (ESS).

Overseen by Wärtsilä's fire safety partners as well as stakeholders-- including Fire & Risk Alliance (FRA), Energy Safety Response Group, and Energy Security Agency-- the testing was finished at a facility in Piqua, Ohio, and also run by the Energy Safety Response Group.

Under the test conditions, a fire was fired up within a ventilated unit as well as was enabled to free-burn for more than 8 hours. The results showed that a fire would certainly continue to be included within the launching system, doors would stay shut and also the fire would certainly not cause unit-to-unit proliferation.

As part of the testing, FRA recorded plume gas data to assess the possible ecological impact of the smoke sent out by an ESS fire. FRA's analysis ended that the smoke from an ESS fire is no worse in terms of environmental impact than fires involving regular consumer products.

" Wärtsilä's bespoke testing is the perfect way to show that a fire will certainly not propagate between ESS units or from string to string. This outcome shows that with minimal or no response from the fire service or various other responders, a totally entailed fire is unlikely to spread beyond the starting unit," said Noah Ryder, PhD, Managing Partner, Fire & Risk Alliance.

" As the risks postured by energy storage systems are much better recognized by AHJs, the desire to include a lot more data right into the safety analysis requires better range as well as evolution in testing. Examination results such as those from large-scale fire tests help inform this procedure, which in general allows for better analysis and also satisfaction of code requirements," claimed Nick Warner, Principal, Energy Safety Response Group. "In the case of Wärtsilä, once the system was completely included [completely on fire], the risk to surrounding devices was very little as well as could be managed by a well-trained fire department with appropriate planning as well as assistance."

Wärtsilä's GridSolv Quantum is a totally incorporated modular and also compact ESS. It achieved UL 9540 certification in April 2022 and also completed UL 9540A unit-level performance testing in February 2023. Wärtsilä's GridSolv Quantum utilizes lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries.