There has been significant growth of the renewable energy and energy storage market during the past several years. Energy storage systems are being installed in a variety of locations, including residential, commercial, and remote. One key factor in the successful deployment of systems is meeting the required codes and standards. This presentation discusses some of the key codes and standards for energy storage, as well as the continually developing landscape.

NTSB investigations have included lithium-ion battery fires involving aircraft, transportation of hazardous materials, passenger vehicles, and battery electric buses. This presentation summarizes investigations focused on electric passenger vehicles and buses, provides a status of findings and recommendations concerning safety risks to emergency responders from lithium-ion battery fires in electric vehicles, and makes observations on responder hazards and regulations for electric vehicles.

Comprehensive review and assistance for industry and regulatory agencies in developing a standardized approach to the appropriate containment and mitigation of Li-ion batteries. First responders need to understand the risk, proper handling, and disposal of these devices. Appropriate transportation regulations and standards for damaged Li-ion devices need to be developed for large devices that do not meet special DOT permits, i.e. EV and ESS systems that have been damaged.

This talk will focus on an update on compliance recalls and incident data, emerging hazards and technology, voluntary standards activities, research testing, and data findings.

Battery systems for the ocean space offer unprecedented savings per kWh of batteries installed. The harsh environment is, however, a significant risk factor together with the short period of collective experience and potentially drastic consequences of a battery failure. As a result, maritime safety must go beyond the present automotive and land-based ESS safety. A layered safety approach starting with a self-extinguishing battery system is therefore needed.

Don't be caught off guard on the latest regulations addressing the transport of lithium batteries. This presentation will address recent changes and those in the works. Regulators are working on a revised, more hazard-based system for classifying lithium batteries, which will require propagation testing and assessing the amount of heat, gas and fire generated during a lithium battery thermal event. Cells and batteries that pose less risk will benefit from the new system. 

Impingement Zone Mapping (IZM) is a new blast plate technique developed by KULR to aid in the characterization of failure patterns in lithium-ion thermal runaway ejecta. By analyzing IZM data, the heat flux, time of event, and 3D model of the event can be determined. This allows for efficient and effective design of containment structures for Li-ion cells.