As one of the new energy technologies developing rapidly in recent years, energy storage power station can effectively meet the demand of large-scale new energy access to the power system, and has the significant advantages of flexible adjustment. Electrochemical energy storage power station is a relatively common type of energy storage power stations. With the construction and application of energy storage power station projects, its fire risk is also gradually emerging.
Take South Korea, which is located just across the sea, for example
From 2017 to 2021, there were 32 energy storage fires, resulting in property losses of 46.6 billion won (about 249 million yuan), and two similar accidents occurred in just a month in 2022! A fire broke out at the SK Energy battery storage building in Ulsan, South Korea, at around 6 am on January 12. According to media reports, the fire broke out in an energy-storage system on a three-storey building, with a battery-based energy storage device installed in November 2018 at 50 MW.
After the fire of SK energy Ulsan energy storage power station, only five days later, South Korea once again sounded the alarm for the safety problem of energy storage system. At 5:01 am on January 17, the Yicheng Fire Department in South Korea received a report of a fire at a solar power plant in New Valley, Niubao County, Junwei County, North Gyeongsang Province. The fire facility is an energy storage system configured in solar power plants.
However, batteries do not only exist in industrial production, but also in our daily life is quite common energy storage tools. Electric bicycles, new energy vehicles, mobile phones, computers..., there are still safety risks in the industrial production with relatively mature technology, if the battery is not used correctly in daily life, its safety risks can not be underestimated.
In recent years, the fire and explosion accidents of energy storage power stations are common. According to statistics, there were more than 30 fires of energy storage power stations worldwide in the past year. Since August 2017,29 energy storage power station fires have occurred in South Korea alone. In addition, on April 19,2019, a battery storage project exploded in Arizona, injuring four firefighters, including two of them.
Fire risk of energy storage power station
1. The fire risk of the energy storage power station mainly lies in the high concentration of its battery pack. Under the influence of internal and external factors such as the battery overcharging, overheating and mechanical collision, it is easy to cause the battery diaphragm collapse and internal short circuit, thus leading to thermal runaway. If the thermal runaway spreads within the battery module, it will cause fire accidents in the system. The electrolyte organic solvent used in the battery is mostly flammable liquid, which increases the hidden danger of fire. In addition, the characteristics of frequent battery charging and discharge and battery cascade utilization will also increase the fire risk to a certain extent.
2. In addition, system design defects, non-standard operation and management, and incomplete fire protection are also major safety factors. Traditional fire control measures are difficult to effectively restrain the thermal runaway of the battery, which leads to the spread of the initial fire, and then evolves into a large-scale fire. The toxic and combustible gas produced also brings challenges to the fire fighting, which may further cause explosion accidents.
Status quo and thinking
1. With the increase of the service period of the energy storage power station, the charging and discharge times of some energy storage systems will gradually be close to the design times, and the lithium battery pack reaches its service life, and its fire safety problems will gradually appear.
2. In the design specification of electrochemical energy storage power station, there is a lack of targeted fire control design requirements, basically according to the general industrial building design, and the battery performance indicators in the energy storage system standards are vague, and the requirements of emergency response and rescue measures are low, resulting in easy supervision omissions.
3. As a worldwide fire safety problem of lithium battery fire disposal, it is necessary to further deepen the safety research of energy storage power station system, and focus on fire prevention and control, early warning, accident disposal and other aspects.