Battery Energy Storage Systems

Battery Energy Storage Systems abbreviated as BESS are electricity storage systems that primarily enable renewable energy and electricity supply robustness.

The major application areas are:

  1. Grid Energy Storage – smoothing out the intermittent supply from renewables
  2. EV Fast Charging – local energy storage can be used to reduce the peak power demand.
  3. Critical Infrastructure – hospitals, telecommunications towers and data centres.
  4. Public infrastructure, commercial buildings, and factories – enabling local grids to operate on local renewables.
  5. Harsh Environments – mining, construction, oil and gas exploration, plus requirements for temporary electricity demand such as music festivals.

We will expand each of these with examples and look at the requirements.

ITP Renewables [2] have been testing BESS systems wince 2016 and over that timeframe have run 3 phases looking at different commercially available energy storage systems. Lessons learned from the battery test centre are that:

  • not all batteries are created equal, price does not guarantee quality,
  • reliability is just as important as capacity retention, and
  • product support and warranties should be considered alongside manufacturers’ performance specifications.

ITP have published a number of reports in this field that are free to download [2].

Batteries in Stationary Energy Storage Applications

Faraday Insights – Issue 21: October 2024

Battery energy storage is becoming increasingly important to the functioning of a stable electricity grid. As of 2023, the UK had installed 4.7 GW / 5.8 GWh of battery energy storage systems,1 with significant additional capacity in the pipeline. Lithium-ion batteries are the technology of choice for short duration energy storage. However, they are not as cost-effective for long duration storage, providing an opportunity for other battery technologies, such as redox-flow or sodium-ion, to be deployed alongside clean technologies such as hydrogen storage.

Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) is a system that can store energy for more than 8 hours and in some cases for weeks.

Costs

Volkan Kumtepeli et al [3] see that for “energy arbitrage, optimal economic dispatch requires a trade-off between overuse, leading to high return rate but short lifetime, vs. underuse, leading to a long but not profitable life. We reveal the intuition behind selecting representative costs for the objective function, and propose a simple moving average filter method to estimate degradation cost. Results show that this better captures peak revenue, assuming reliable price forecasts are available.”

Volkan Kumtepeli, Holger Hesse, Thomas Morstyn, Seyyed Mostafa Nosratabadi, Marko Aunedi and David A. Howey, Depreciation Cost is a Poor Proxy for Revenue Lost to Aging in Grid Storage Optimization, Arxiv.org

Failures

failures / GWh are falling for BESS units
Failures and Fires in BESS Systems

Typical failures include:

  • faulty control of humidity within enclosures that led to condensation on sensitive components
  • poorly sealed enclosures that led to rain penetration
  • combustible meltable components made of plastics and aluminium that can contribute to fire propagation
Root-Cause Breakdown of Global BESS Fires
  • A statistical review of 102 fire incidents (2016–2025) identifies temporal, regional, and technical risk patterns in electrochemical energy storage stations.
  • Most incidents occur during operation and maintenance, with ternary lithium batteries being the primary hazard source.
  • Field surveys of 18 stations highlight insufficient fire protection investment and weak emergency preparedness.
  • Targeted strategies are proposed to enhance system design, thermal runaway monitoring, and lifecycle safety governance.

Standards

containerised BESS certifications
Global Standards Certifications for BESS

The Global Standards Certifications for BESS container based solutions is significant. As Battery Energy Storage Systems become critical to modern power infrastructure, compliance with international standards ensures safety, performance, and interoperability across components from cells to containerized systems.

Legislation, Rules and Regulations

  • UL 9540 is the system-level product safety standard for stationary energy storage systems, covering the ESS as an integrated unit rather than just the cells inside it.
  • UL 9540A is the fire test method that quantifies thermal runaway propagation and off-gas hazards at cell, module, unit and installation scale, used by authorities having jurisdiction to set separation distances and suppression requirements.
  • NFPA 855 is the primary North American installation code for BESS, setting siting, spacing, fire suppression and ventilation requirements.
  • IEEE 1547 defines the interconnection and interoperability requirements for distributed energy resources, including BESS, connecting to the electric power system.
  • IEEE 1679 is a general framework for evaluating the characteristics of battery technologies proposed for stationary, standalone energy storage applications.
  • IEEE 1679.1 is the companion guide focused specifically on evaluating lithium-ion battery technologies for stationary applications, building on the general IEEE 1679 framework.

Testing

BESS Testing - image shows two sinovoltaics engineers looking at a BESS
BESS Factory Acceptance Testing

Factory acceptance testing is a structured verification process conducted at the manufacturer’s facility before a BESS is shipped to its installation site. The purpose is straightforward: confirm that the system meets the contractual specifications, performance requirements, and applicable safety standards before you take delivery.

A comprehensive BESS factory acceptance testing program is not a single event. It consists of multiple test phases covering every major subsystem.

Based on the Sinovoltaics Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) framework, a thorough FAT covers the following areas:

  1. Container-Level FAT
  2. PCS (Power Conversion System) FAT
  3. BMS (Battery Management System) FAT
  4. Battery Module and Rack FAT
  5. Emergency Procedure Verification
  6. EMS Integration Testing
  7. Capacity Testing

For the fuller set of tests across cell, module, pack and system level, see BESS Testing.

References

  1. Renewables and Energy Storage Reports, ITP Renewables – specialises in producing detailed market and technology reports for policy makers, associations and businesses. Our reports are informed by some of Australia’s leading experts and are highly regarded for their thorough technical analysis, accuracy and independent outlook.
  2. Six years and 26 batteries later, ITP’s Battery Test Centre
  3. Volkan Kumtepeli, Holger Hesse, Thomas Morstyn, Seyyed Mostafa Nosratabadi, Marko Aunedi and David A. Howey, Depreciation Cost is a Poor Proxy for Revenue Lost to Aging in Grid Storage Optimization, Arxiv.org

See also

Sodium-Sulfur (NaS) Battery