Assessing Risk Across the Project Lifecycle of Grid-Scale Storage

Safety and risk mitigation is a collective responsibility and involves multiple stakeholders across the lifecycle of a battery energy storage project. This panel presentation will cover risk assessment and mitigation from a variety of perspectives, including insurance, transportation and handling, and first responder engagement. Insurance underwriters must consider several factors such as site design, maintenance plans and product maturity when determining premiums and policies. Spacing requirements and propagation mitigation to minimize probable losses with be compared with new findings on impacts and equipment damage in real-world incidents. The relative risk of batteries compared to other energy infrastructure has not previously been studied. Results from a new study on energy storage fire and explosion incidents, considering property damage, environment, and civic impact will be shared. Lastly, batteries carry some amount of risk before installation and operation. Lessons learned from the incident response of recent fire events during transportation and handling of batteries will be presented, based on information gathered from interviews, reports, and public documents.