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Public Consultation: PAS 63100 Electrical installations – Protection against fire of battery energy storage systems for use in dwellings – Specification

gkenyon

The Draft of the new PAS 63100 standard for protection against fire of battery energy storage systems for use in dwellings is now available for public comment on BSI’s Standards Development web-site.

The public commenting period commences 26 June 2023, and on closes on 24 July 2023.

This topic is directly related to domestic storage installations accordance with BS 7671 and the IET Code of Practice for Electrical Energy Storage Systems.

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  • in reply to gkenyon

    That's a problem I hadn't thought about, a car transporter laden with EVs overturning and catching fire Frowning2 That only had four, it could have been more.

Children
  • in reply to Roger B

    And none of them on charge ... Lithium batteries do not need to be charging to be a fire hazard (although charging may increase battery temperature, increasing the risk of a fire).

  • in reply to Roger B

    Damaged electric cars ‘quarantined’ over fears they will explode

    Practice threatens to increase costs for insurance industry by more than £600m

    Electric cars that sustain minor bumps are being kept 15 meters apart in repair yards over fears they might explode, adding to insurance bills.

    Government guidelines recommend electric vehicles with damaged batteries should be “quarantined” from other vehicles due to the risk of battery fires. Damaged batteries pose a risk of “thermal runaway” where the energy stored in the battery releases rapidly, creating temperatures of up to 400C.

    But the practice threatens to increase costs for the insurance industry by more than £600m, costs which ultimately could be passed onto drivers in increased premiums, according to a report by automotive risk firm Thatcham Research.

    It said insurers would need to spend an additional £900m a year on quarantine facilities for damaged cars as a result of the safety measures by 2035, as more battery-powered vehicles take to the roads. The extra costs risk adding £20 a year onto all car insurance premiums, rising to £28 by 2050 when there are expected to be some 360,000 electric cars on the road network.

    Just two damaged electric cars can fit into the same space that would otherwise fit 100 petrol or diesel cars, under current the DVLA and Transport Department guidelines. 

    Adrian Watson, of Thatcham Research, said: “I’ve seen salvage plants with quarantining compounds. Any EV goes straight in there and sits there for a week before they do anything with it.”

    The placement of the battery within electric cars can make it more likely that it will be damaged and written off after a minor accident, according to experts who have previously pointed to common “skateboard” designs. These place batteries underneath the car, leaving them susceptible to damage from minor accidents such as mounting the kerb.

    Take up of electric cars is expected to increase in the coming years as net zero legislation forces manufacturers to phase out fossil fuel vehicles.

    Last year 9,400 vehicles were potentially involved in collisions resulting in batteries needing repair – a figure that could reach as high as 260,000 by 2035, the report said.

    Claims for damaged electric cars cost insurers 25pc more than their petrol counterparts, the report found. Electric vehicles also take 14pc longer to repair.

    Rapidly depreciating values mean the cost of replacing a battery outweighs the cost of the car after just one year, leaving insurers no choice but to scrap the car, it said.

    Car manufacturers are also reluctant to share diagnostic data with third-party insurers over fears they may botch the repairs.

    Few technicians in Britain are qualified to work with car batteries, prompting calls from industry leaders for more investment in training technicians.

  • in reply to Roger B

    What about an EV fire of a Ferry or even worse the Channel Tunnel?

  • in reply to Sergio Fernandez

    Once the fire has started it's probably no worse having batteries than having the vehicles full of petrol or diesel fuel (remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc_Tunnel_fire )? If anything there's probably less energy stored in a EV battery than in an ICE vehicle's fuel tank (so less heat generation overall) - and liquid fuels are probably more likely to go spilling along the floor to spread the fire further.

       - Andy.

  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    I wonder if an up to date fire risk assesment for the channel tunnel trains that carry cars has taken this into account as I am sure this would not have been part of the intial design requirement.  I assume they would have to update the fire supression and evacution proceedure. 

  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    As I understand the situation it is not the stored electrical energy that is the problem but the various elements used to construct the battery that will burn without an external oxygen supply. Petrol and diesel fires can be extinguished by cutting off the oxygen with foam or powder. The lithium based batteries keep burning.

  • in reply to Roger B

    This can also be taken one step further.  1 EV on fire can ignite the next EV on fire thus causing a chain reaction of fires igniting with a furiotious burn akin to a rocket taking off

  • in reply to Sergio Fernandez

    1 EV on fire can ignite the next EV on fire thus causing a chain reaction of fires

    same with liquid fuel vehicles.

    As I understand the situation it is not the stored electrical energy that is the problem but the various elements used to construct the battery that will burn without an external oxygen supply. Petrol and diesel fires can be extinguished by cutting off the oxygen with foam or powder. The lithium based batteries keep burning.

    A bit of both I suspect. I would have thought conventional firefighting techniques (e.g. water) could keep the area around a burning EV cool enough to prevent the fire spreading, even if its own batteries continued to pyrolyse.

    For comparison, thousands of petrol/diesel vehicles bust into flames of their own accord every year (often due a simple fuel leak in the engine compartment) - happened to a good friend of mine on the motorway a few years back in an almost new car. Things can be a long way from perfect and still be no worse than they are already.

       - Andy.

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