LIVEWIRE | Enhancing Safety in Battery Energy Storage Systems: Global Lessons and Best Practices

This Live Wire gives policy makers, regulators, utilities, project developers, and financiers an overview of battery energy storage system safety risks and mitigation measures. Focusing on utility-scale lithium-ion systems, it reviews current technology trends, regulatory frameworks, and best international practices. Early large-scale, monolithic lithium-ion installations - often based on nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry and limited fire segmentation - were vulnerable to serious fires and explosions. Immature standards, limited operating experience, and inconsistent emergency response practices compound the risks. Industry practice has since advanced considerably. Updated standards, broader adoption of lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry, modular containerized designs, better battery management systems, and improved fire detection and gas management have significantly reduced both the likelihood and scale of major incidents.