Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are transforming how the world manages renewable energy, but they also bring unique fire safety challenges.
As the world accelerates toward renewable energy, BESS are playing a pivotal role in ensuring stability, flexibility, and resilience across power networks. By storing surplus electricity generated from wind, solar, or other renewable sources, BESS facilities provide critical backup during peak demand and enable grid operators to balance fluctuating supply. This capability is also essential for the growth of electric vehicle infrastructure and the transition away from fossil fuels.
However, along with their benefits, BESS facilities present a unique set of fire safety challenges. Understanding these risks, and addressing them with robust fire safety solutions, is crucial to ensuring their safe operation.
Fire Risks in BESS Facilities
Most large-scale BESS installations rely on lithium-ion batteries due to their energy density and efficiency. Yet, lithium-ion technology carries inherent hazards if cells are overcharged, damaged, or exposed to heat. One of the greatest threats is thermal runaway, a chain reaction where excessive heat within a cell triggers neighbouring cells to fail, escalating into a fire or even explosion.
In addition to thermal runaway, operators must consider the risk of toxic and flammable gas release, electrical faults, and fire propagation across tightly packed modules. Suppression efforts can also expose responders to hazardous by-products, adding complexity to emergency management.
The consequences of such incidents are significant, from damage to expensive infrastructure and downtime in energy supply, to reputational risk and potential harm to personnel.
Why Fire Safety is Essential
Incidents in recent years have highlighted how challenging BESS fires are to extinguish once a fire has broken out and thermal runaway has begun. A notable example being at Moss Landing in California, an energy storage facility in which an indoor BESS fire led to the evacuation of around 1,200 residents. A similar incident also occurred in East Tilbury, Essex, where a fire at a utility-scale BESS under construction took over 24 hours and specialist response to contain.
With installations often located near critical infrastructure or residential areas, fire safety is not simply a regulatory requirement but a fundamental part of ensuring public trust in renewable energy.
Meeting the Challenge: The Role of Gas Suppression
In BESS applications, a variety of extinguishing agents are employed, including gases, aerosols, and water-based systems.
Among the most effective strategies for managing fire risk in BESS facilities is the use of gas-based suppression systems. However, it is important not to generalise the extinguishing principles of different agents. For example, Novec 1230 and FM-200 primarily suppress fire through heat absorption, cooling the flame and disrupting the chemical chain reaction that drives combustion. Inert gases and CO2, by contrast, function by lowering the oxygen concentration within a protected enclosure to a level insufficient to support combustion. Clean-agent gases work by reducing oxygen concentration in the protected area to extinguish a fire. This approach prevents collateral damage while containing fire spread. For this reason, gas suppression has become the preferred method of protection for many high-risk, high-cost environments, from data centres to transport infrastructure, and is increasingly specified for BESS installations.
Alternatively, water, specifically water mist systems, can be an extremely effective extinguishing agent. Unlike conventional sprinklers, water mist technology provides effective cooling of battery modules and associated equipment, reduces oxygen concentration to suppress combustion, and does so using minimal water volume. This minimises the risk of damage to sensitive electronics compared to traditional sprinkler systems. While water mist systems may be less commonly deployed internationally due to cost and space requirements, their effectiveness should not be underestimated.
ExGo: Dependable Extinguishing Control
At the heart of a suppression system is its control panel. Our ExGo extinguishing control panel has been designed to provide a simple, dependable solution for managing suppression in single-flooding areas such as BESS containers or enclosures.
- Aproved to EN12094-1 and EN54 Parts 2, 4 and 13, ExGo operates as a standalone panel or integrates with our wider fire systems, as well as third-party equipment.
- Simple to set up with intuitive LCD menus, and removable chassis for ease of installation, the panel features hold and abort functions, automatic/manual release controls, and clear status indicators to prevent unwanted discharges.
- Diagnostic tools, event logging, and compatibility with a wide range of detection devices as well as compatibility with various extinguishing agents including FM-soo, Novec 1230, inert gases, CO2, aerosols, and water mist systems make this panel a versatile choice for battery energy storage facilities of all sizes.
Application in BESS Environments
ExGo can be deployed across both front-of-the-meter (FTM) and behind-the-meter (BTM) BESS facilities. Whether protecting large-scale utility installations or smaller commercial and industrial systems, its flexibility makes it suitable for a wide range of applications.
In practice, this means ExGo can be configured to monitor detection devices such as smoke, heat, or gas sensors, trigger suppression within a container or building, and interface with building management or fire alarm systems. Integration with broader fire panels ensures the system is part of a coordinated site-wide safety strategy, enabling operators to monitor and respond to conditions across the protected area.
The Bigger Picture
ExGo is already in use worldwide, protecting assets that are sensitive, high-value, or strategically important. From data centres and control rooms to transport hubs and cultural archives, it has proven its reliability in complex environments. Its application to BESS represents a natural extension of this pedigree.
We believe that the safe adoption of renewable energy depends not only on innovative storage technology but also on trusted fire protection. By combining extinguishing expertise with robust detection and monitoring solutions, we’re helping operators ensure their facilities are safeguarded against today’s most challenging fire risks.
Final Thoughts
Battery energy storage systems are vital to the future of sustainable energy, but their safe operation cannot be taken for granted. With risks ranging from thermal runaway to toxic gas release, fire safety must be at the forefront of system design and operation.
ExGo offers operators a proven, flexible, and standards-compliant means of managing suppression in BESS facilities, supporting the transition to renewable energy while protecting people, property, and power supply continuity.
As demand for BESS grows across Asia and beyond, so too does the need for dependable fire protection. We remain committed to working with partners and customers worldwide to deliver solutions that meet this need, helping secure a cleaner, safer energy future.
How we can help
We offer a variety of solutions that can be used standalone or in combination with other systems to help in detecting, containing, and controlling BESS fires. Explore how our products help safeguard BESS facilities and support the safe growth of sustainable energy.