Another fire was reported involving an ESS (Energy Storage System) that includes LG Chem’s battery. It is confirmed that the battery was produced from LG Chem’s plant in Ochang rather than its plant in Nanjing that had been pointed out as the root of the issue. As a result, LG Chem has decided to carry out an emergency measure that will adjust the operation rate of ESS applied with a battery produced from the plant in Ochang to 70%.
Fire was reported around 4:15 PM on the 21st at a solar photovoltaic power station equipped with an ESS in Hadong-gun. 1.3MWh batteries that were installed inside of the ESS were supplied by LG Chem.
The ESS was equipped with batteries that were produced from LG Chem’s plant in Ochang rather than Nanjing. Most of the focus on past fires was on the initial supply of batteries produced from LG Chem’s plant in Nanjing. In addition, defects were also found with corresponding batteries during an investigation by a private-public joint committee.
“While the issue may be solved by replacing entire batteries if the issue has to do with a particular battery, it can be more complicated if the battery is not the cause of the issue.” said a representative for the industry. “This is the worst scenario that the industry has been concerned about and we need more fundamental analysis towards the cause of fire and possible preventions.”
However, the recent fire happened when the ESS was operating at a normal rate. Although LG Chem decided to lower the SOC (State of Charge) rate of ESS equipped with its battery produced from its plant in Nanjing from 95% to 70% around 2017, corresponding business place was not applicable to LG Chem’s measure and it had been maintaining the SOC charge at more than 90%. The industry however has been pointing out the connection between recent fires and the operation conditions of SOC.
Corresponding business place had carried out its own safety measure according to tightened policies by South Korean Government and received an approval from a safety management committee on the 17th. However, it is likely that there will be a controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the safety measure that the business place had taken as the fire occurred in just four days from receiving an approval.
“We are going to investigate causes of the recent fire and reexamine whether there is any issue with current safety measure process.” said a representative for Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.
With the recent fire, there had been 27 fires since the first fire happened in Gochang in August of 2017. Out of 27 fires, 17 of them had focused on ESS equipped with LG Chem’s battery.
As part of a measure to strengthen safety of ESS, LG Chem is preparing to launch a product that will prevent fires from spreading. In addition, it is also planning to carry out detailed experiments until end of this year in order to find the exact cause of fires. It will take appropriate actions after it is done with its investigation. However, many are asking LG Chem to be more active in coming up with possible countermeasures as fire continues to take place.
“We are currently investigating causes of the recent fire.” said a spokesperson for LG Chem. “We are going to put in maximum efforts to strengthen the safety of ESS in order to investigate the exact cause and to carry out measures with responsibility.” The spokesperson also added that LG Chem is going to lower the operation rate of business places that use the corresponding model to 70% until it is done with its investigation.
Staff Reporter Jung, Hyeonjung | iam@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Choi, Jaepil | jpchoi@etnews.com