[Anchor]

As electricity demand and renewable energy generation increase, the market for Energy Storage Systems (ESS) is growing rapidly, but anxieties regarding fire risks inherent to batteries remain persistent.

To address this, the government has implemented a system where real-time data from all ESS units nationwide is sent to government agencies for remote management. Senior Climate and Environment Reporter Jang Se-man visited the site to examine 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 the lithium-ion battery pack, leading to sequential thermal runaway in just two minutes, paralyzing more than 700 government computing systems.

Such lithium-ion batteries used in large capacities are Energy Storage Systems, or ESS.

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

This is the ESS control room at the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation.

It receives real-time data from all ESS units nationwide and monitors 24 hours a day for fire-related anomalies.

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 Room Worker: (At the business site) An ESS anomaly signal popped up, so I called to request an on-site check.]

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%, and the cell voltage suddenly plummeted.

At the time, fine smoke was already rising from the ESS in question, but the company was completely unaware of it.

[Kim Sungho / Manager, Korea Electrical Safety Corporation: Through a micro-flame, damage was sustained here, and if this condition continues to be left unattended...]br />
The Korea Electrical Safety Corporation announced that remote management has prevented 355 cases that could have led to large-scale fires, such as thermal runaway.

While abnormal signals are also transmitted to the owners of the ESS, there are many cases where proper responses are not taken until notified by 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 neglectful when it comes to safety.]

As ESS safety is emphasized, a system is also being developed to replicate the equipment identically in a virtual space and predict fires and aging through AI.

(Camera Reporter: Kang Dong-chul, Video Editor: Choi Hye-young)