Real-Time Remote Monitoring of ESS Prevents 355 Thermal Runaway Incidents

[Anchor]

As electricity demand and renewable energy generation increase, the market for energy storage systems, or ESS, is growing rapidly. However, concerns regarding fire risks inherent to batteries still persist.

To address this, the government has implemented a system where real-time data from all ESS units nationwide is sent to a government agency for remote management. Jang Se-man, our Climate and Environment Specialist Reporter, visited the site to see how effective this system actually is.

[Reporter]

The fire at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon in September of last year.

Sparks flashed across a lithium-ion battery pack, leading to a chain reaction of thermal runaway within just two minutes, paralyzing more than 700 government computing systems.

Energy storage systems, or ESS, are where such lithium-ion batteries are used in large capacities.

Consequently, the government has made the transmission of ESS charge and discharge data mandatory starting in 2024.

This is the ESS control center of the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation.

It receives real-time data from all ESS units nationwide and monitors 24 hours a day to see if fire-related abnormal situations occur.

Seventy-five types of data, including cell temperature, voltage, and current, are transmitted on a minute-by-minute basis.

When an abnormal signal is detected,

[ESS Control Center Worker: (We are calling from the control center because) an abnormal ESS signal popped up at your workplace, so we would like to ask you to check the site.]

It works like this.

In fact, an abnormal signal was detected from an ESS in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, in September 2024, when the battery charge rate, which had been at 90 percent, and the cell voltage suddenly plummeted.

At the time, the ESS in question was already emitting subtle smoke, but the company was completely unaware of it.

[Kim Sungho / Manager, Korea Electrical Safety Corporation: Through a micro-flame, damage was inflicted here, and if this condition continues to be left unattended...]

The Korea Electrical Safety Corporation stated that 355 cases that could have led to major fires, such as thermal runaway, were prevented through remote management.

Abnormal signals are also transmitted to the companies that own the ESS, but there are many cases where proper responses are not made until notification is received from the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation.

[Ahn Yun-young / Researcher, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute: From the perspective of business owners (who installed the ESS), they want to maximize efficiency, so they tend to be negligent about safety.]

As ESS safety is emphasized, a system is also being developed that implements the facility identically in a virtual space and uses AI to predict fires and aging.

(Camera: Kang Dong-chul | Video Editing: Choi Hye-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.