New York includes lithium-ion battery safety in draft fire code update

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Dive briefing:

• New York has published a draft text that updates and expands the fire code, with recommendations for the safety of lithium-ion battery energy storage systems published in February by an interagency task force from the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, D, announced on friday.
• According to the governor’s office, the task force recommended, among other things, expanding and improving on-site safety and directional signage, eliminating the fire code exemption for storage facilities owned or operated by electric utilities, and requiring facility operators to develop emergency plans and provide site-specific training to local fire departments.
• “If adopted, these code improvements will be critical to improving the resiliency and efficiency of New York’s electric grid while ensuring safety for New Yorkers,” said Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, in a statement.

Diving insight:

Governor Hochul convened the interdepartmental working group in July 2023 after multiple safety incidents at battery storage facilities in New York, including a four-day fire at Convergent Energy facility in Jefferson County.

Other U.S. jurisdictions have recently taken steps to improve safety and emergency planning at battery factories.

a California State Law passed last year, requires facility operators to develop emergency plans with procedures to notify surrounding communities of safety incidents, while officials in San Diego County, California, voted last week to develop location and safety standards for battery installations in the province’s non-connected areas.

San Diego County is also considering a 45-day moratorium on energy storage applications. The county has seen at least two major storage facility fires in the past year, including an 11-day blaze at the 250-MWh Gateway Energy Storage Station near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Grid-level lithium-ion battery safety incidents decreased by 97% from 2018 to 2023, according to a May study from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute and battery analysis provider TWAICE. But fires in lithium-ion batteries are hard to extinguish and toxic substances may be released, which could raise public safety concerns.

The New York task force made 15 fire safety recommendations in February. In addition to eliminating the exemption for electric utilities, requiring emergency response plans and improving on-site signage standards, the task force recommended requiring that facility personnel or representatives be able to leave the facility within 15 minutes and be on-site within four hours of an incident. Other recommendations include having local fire authorities monitor fire detection systems for battery facilities and requiring industry-funded independent peer reviews and regular safety inspections for eligible energy storage facilities, Gov. Hochul’s office said.

According to Governor Hochul’s office, New York will accept public comments on the draft fire code through September 24.

“Adopting the most current, best-in-class (battery safety) standards will ensure responsible and safe deployment of energy storage while ensuring all New Yorkers benefit from low-cost, reliable, clean energy,” said Noah Roberts, senior director of energy storage for the American Clean Power Association. “Otherwise, we risk consolidating an outdated understanding of energy storage technologies.”

ACP released a Model Regulation for the Safety of Energy Storage for state and local governments to incorporate “the rigorous, expert-developed, evidence-based safety rules” set forth in the National Fire Protection Association’s 855 standard, Roberts added.

The proposed improvements to the New York fire code only apply to lithium-ion battery storage systems with a capacity greater than 600 kWh, the design languageThey exclude smaller battery arrays and storage facilities that use non-lithium technologies, some of which can cost-effectively discharge energy over periods longer than the typical 1- to 4-hour discharge duration of lithium-ion batteries.

As part of his plan to implement 6 GW of energy storage New York aims to have 20% of large-scale storage procurements consist of storage resources with a discharge duration of 8 hours by 2030.

Such longer-duration storage resources include conventional battery-free systems, such as the 1.2-GW Blenheim-Gilboa pumped hydroelectric power project in the Catskill Mountains of New York, and emerging technologies such as Hydrostor’s advanced compressed air energy storage system.

They also include non-lithium battery chemistries with lower fire risk, such as The organic flow of CMBlu And Zinc Manganese Dioxide Batteries from Urban Electric Power.

The U.S. Department of Energy will cover half of the $13.1 million cost of two large-scale Urban Electric Power facilities scheduled to come online in 2028. The New York Power Authority said last week. Each 300-kW facility can discharge for 12 hours or more, according to NYPA.