It's strongly recommended that the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is contacted during the earliest planning phases. This will ensure a full understanding of potential risks. Additionally, it will help develop strategies that will mitigate these risks.
To gain a consultation meeting please reach out too errp@ddfire.gov.uk
County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS) are not statutory consultees of these developments. The guidance does not seek to provide a full specification or opinion on the entirety of a BESS system design. Instead, the aim is to limit the content to such matters that directly relate to facilitating a safe and effective response, by the fire and rescue service.
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has issued guidance stating that BESS developers must ensure the risk of fire is minimised by:
- Procuring components and using construction techniques which comply with all relevant legislation
- The inclusion of Automatic Fire Detection systems in the development design
- Including automatic fire suppression systems in the development design. CDDFRS would recommend the use of water misting system as fires involving lithium-ion batteries have the potential for thermal runaway
- To Include redundancy in the design to provide multiple layers of protection
- Designing the development to contain and restrict the spread of fire using fire-resistant materials, and adequate separation between elements of the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
- Ensuring the BESS is located with due considerations of impact on communities, sites and infrastructure. Prevailing wind directions should be factored into the location of the BESS to minimise the impact of a fire involving lithium-ion batteries due to the toxic fumes produced.
It is also essential to develop an emergency response plan with CDDFRS to minimise the impact of an incident throughout the lifecycle of the facility. This should be regularly reviewed and any significant changes communicated to CDDFRS.
The design of the BESS facilities should include the following:
- Adequate separation between containers
- The provision of thermal barriers between switch gear and batteries
- Adequate ventilation or an air conditioning system to control the temperature. Ventilation is important since batteries will continue to generate flammable gas if they are hot. Also, carbon monoxide will be generated until the batteries are completely cooled through to their core
- The installation of a very early warning fire detection system, such as aspirating smoke detection/air sampling.
- Carbon monoxide (CO) detection within each BESS container
- Sprinkler protection within BESS containers, which should be designed to adequately contain and extinguish a fire.
- Sufficient water available for manual firefighting, with an external fire hydrant close to the BESS containers. This water supply should be able to provide a minimum of 1,900 l/min for at least 120 minutes (two hours)
- Further Hydrants should be strategically located across the site and tested regularly by the operator
- If the site is not near a a pressure fed water supply, then an alternative emergency water supply that achieves the above criteria will need to be installed
- Environmental effects from fire fighting will need to be considered including Contaminated run off
As the majority of BESS sites are remotely monitored, consideration should include the fixing of a Premises Information Box at the fire service access point. This should provide an emergency response plan, including details of water supplies for firefighting, and drainage plans highlighting any pollution control devices, penstock valves etc.
Here at CDDFRS we understand that BESS is a fairly new technology and as such risks may or may not be captured in current guidance in pursuance of the Building Regulations (as amended) and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This will highlight challenges the FRS have when responding to Building Regulations consultations. For this reason, we strongly recommend applying the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 855 Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems along with guidance from the NFCC Grid Scale Battery Energy Storage System Planning.
Further information can be gathered from the NFCC planning guidance document located here