Lithium-ion batteries have received increased scrutiny due to a number of high-profile events that have brought undesired attention to the safety of the industry. In the past few years, many new regulations have been created to ensure the safety of lithium-ion batteries and battery systems.
The lithium-ion battery regulatory hierarchy can be split up into five distinct categories. The first four categories can be viewed as a hierarchy, that builds on top of each other. The final category, transport standards, deals with the standards that lithium-ion cells and systems are held to for transport.
Overarching standards
The standards that pertain to the environment at large which includes but is not limited to the energy storage system.
Installation standards
The standards to which complete lithium-ion energy storage installations are held.
System standards
The standards to which lithium-ion battery systems are held.
Component standards
The standards to which lithium-ion battery cells and other system components are held.
Transport standards
The standards that lithium-ion battery cells and systems are held to for shipment and transport
10. UN DOT 38.3 UN Transportation Testing for Lithium Batteries
UN DOT 38.3 is the standard to which any type of battery, whether it be a cell, module, or
system, is held in order to be shipped within the USA. This standard makes it in at the top of
the list makes because, even though the tests within the standard are very basic, batteries
will be shipped within the USA very often and, therefore, the ability to meet this standard is absolutely essential.
9. IEC 62281 Safety of Primary and Secondary Lithium Cells and Batteries During Transport
IEC 62281 is very similar to UN DOT 38.3, but accepted throughout the world, whereas UN DOT 38.3 is accepted primarily in the USA. The two tests are largely the same and evaluate the batteries capability to deal with fundamental battery tests, where rapid disassembly would be categorized as a failure to meet the standard.
8. UL 1642 Standard for Lithium Batteries
Lithium-ion battery cells are the building blocks of an energy storage system and need to be held to certain standards, which is the purpose of UL 1642. This regulation has its place on this list because regulating and testing lithium-ion batteries, at the most fundamental level, are designed safely is critical to any and every application where they are used.
7. IEC 62133 Safety Requirements for Portable, Sealed Secondary Lithium Cells
IEC 62281 is very similar to UL 1642, but accepted throughout the world, whereas UL 1642 is accepted primarily in the USA. The two tests are largely the same and evaluate a cell’s capability to deal with different abuse conditions as listed in the table below.
6.IEC 62619 Safety requirements for secondary lithium cells in industrial applications
With large format lithium-ion battery systems starting to become more common in industrial applications, IEC 62619 comes in at sixth on this list because of how broadly it can be applied and how it dictates the system-level design parameters of these systems.
5. DNV-GL Pt 6, Ch 2, Sec 1 Rules for Propulsion, Power Generation, and Auxiliary systems on ships
DNV-GL Part 6, Chapter 2, Section 1 deals with battery powered systems on ships. This standard comes in ahead of IEC 62619 at fifth because of it’s prescriptive nature and degree of scrutiny not seen in other applications. Regardless of application, the rules within this standard can be used to help guide the installation and design process to have a safe lithium-ion battery energy storage system.
4. UL 9540A Test Method for Characterizing Energy Storage System Fire Safety Hazards
UL 9540A, released in November of 2017, is not an actual standard, but rather a test method for evaluating the fire hazards associated with a particular energy storage system. This reaches fourth on our list because metropolitan areas will begin to integrate energy storage and authorities having jurisdiction of these areas will request that this test method be performed. The creation of UL 9540A was at the request of authorities having jurisdiction in the USA who were concerned with energy storage systems being installed near and around populated areas.
UL 9540A strives to understand the implications of a single cell failure in an energy storage system. This is done by heating up a single cell at 5oC/min until failure to understand the behaviors of this cell. The same test is performed, where a single cell is overheated to failure within a battery module and the consequences are observed. Next, this occurs again, but within a full-scale unit or rack of batteries, where there are several battery modules. If certain performance criteria are met at this point in the test, the test method is concluded, but if these criteria are not met, a system-level test is performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the fire detection and suppression.
3. UL 9540 Standard for Energy Storage Systems and Equipment
UL 9540 includes intense evaluations of not only the energy storage system itself, but the control, protection, power conversion, communication, fire detection, and fire suppression methods. The systems which apply to this standard are those intended to be used in a standalone (e.g. islanded) including “self- supply” systems to provide electric energy and those used in parallel with an electric power system or electric utility grid. This standard also includes many other methods of energy storage, including electrochemical, chemical, mechanical, and thermal methods.
This standard includes references to UL 1973 and UL 1971, which are battery pack and inverter standards, respectively. The current version of UL 9540 does not include the UL 9540A test method, but may include it in the second edition of the standard.
2. NFPA 855 Standard for the Installation of Energy Storage Systems
NFPA 855 encompasses the standards for the complete installation of energy storage, but from a fire protection point of view. The standard is currently entering it’s second, and potentially final, public comment period putting it at second on our list.
1. IFC 1206:2018 Standard for Electrical Energy Storage Systems
IFC 1206:2018 is a very similar standard to NFPA 855, where the installation and fire protection of an energy storage system is standardized through this code. The reason why this takes number one on our list is because, first, the IFC is adopted in 37 of the 50 states and, second, because the standard is currently going through it’s lastpotential public comment period.