Dive Brief:
- New York has issued draft language updating and expanding its fire code to include lithium-ion battery energy storage system safety recommendations issued in February by a state interagency working group, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, announced Friday.
- The working group recommended expanding and improving onsite safety and wayfinding signage, removing the fire code exemption for storage installations owned or operated by electric utilities, and requiring installation operators to develop emergency response plans and offer site-specific training to local fire departments, among other suggestions, the governor’s office said.
- “These code enhancements, if adopted, will be critical in enhancing the resiliency and efficiency of New York’s grid while prioritizing safety for New Yorkers,” New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen Harris said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Gov. Hochul convened the interagency working group in July 2023 following multiple safety incidents at New York battery storage installations, including a four-day fire at a Convergent Energy facility in Jefferson County.
Other U.S. jurisdictions have recently taken steps to improve safety and emergency planning at battery facilities.
A California state law passed last year requires facility operators to develop emergency response plans with procedures for notifying surrounding communities of safety incidents, while officials in San Diego County, California, voted last week to develop siting and safety standards for battery installations in the county’s unincorporated areas.
San Diego County is also considering a 45-day moratorium on energy storage applications. The county has seen at least two major storage installation 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-scale lithium-ion battery safety incidents declined by 97% from 2018 to 2023, according to a May study by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute and battery analytics provider TWAICE. But lithium-ion battery fires are difficult to extinguish and may release toxic compounds, raising public safety concerns.
The New York working group issued 15 fire safety recommendations in February. In addition to eliminating the electrical utility exemption, requiring emergency response plans and enhancing onsite signage standards, the working group recommended requiring facility personnel or representatives to be able to dispatch within 15 minutes and arrive onsite within four hours of an incident. Other recommendations included having battery installation fire detection systems monitored by local firefighting authorities, and requiring industry-funded independent peer reviews and regular safety inspections for qualifying energy storage facilities, Gov. Hochul’s office said.
New York will accept public comments on the draft fire code language through Sept. 24, Gov. Hochul’s office said.
“The adoption of the most up-to-date, best-in-class [battery safety] standards ensures responsible and safe deployment of energy storage, while allowing all New Yorkers to benefit from low cost, reliable and clean energy,” said Noah Roberts, senior director of energy storage for the American Clean Power Association. “Otherwise, we risk cementing an outdated understanding of energy storage technologies.”
ACP released in June a model energy storage safety ordinance for state and local governments that incorporated “the rigorous, expert-developed, and evidence-based safety rules” outlined in the National Fire Protection Association’s 855 standard, Roberts added.
New York’s proposed fire code enhancements apply only to lithium-ion battery storage systems with capacities exceeding 600 kWh, according to the draft language. They exclude smaller battery arrays and storage facilities using 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 its plan to deploy 6 GW of energy storage by 2030, New York will aim for storage resources with 8-hour discharge durations to comprise 20% of each utility-scale storage procurement.
Such longer-duration storage resources include conventional non-battery systems, such as the 1.2-GW Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in New York’s Catskill Mountains, and emergent technologies like Hydrostor’s advanced compressed-air energy storage system.
They also include non-lithium battery chemistries with lower fire risk, such as CMBlu’s organic flow and Urban Electric Power’s zinc manganese dioxide batteries.
The U.S. Department of Energy will cover half the $13.1 million cost of two demonstration-scale Urban Electric Power installations set to come online by 2028, the New York Power Authority said last week. Each 300-kW installation will be capable of discharging for 12 hours or longer, NYPA said.
