Battery Fire Safety - Updates on NFPA 855

Recording of Wednesday, May 07, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2025 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 10:14 .

Upcoming 2026 Edition of NFPA 855 Introduces Significant Changes for Battery Fire Safety and Energy Storage Systems.

Nicholas Bartlett, a fire marshal and engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, discusses battery fire safety with a focus on NFPA 855—the standard for energy storage systems. NREL is one of the U.S. Department of Energy's national labs specializing in renewable energy research including batteries and solar PV. Due to incidents like explosions and fires over recent years, codes such as NFPA 855 are crucial for reducing risks associated with energy storage systems. NFPA 855 covers various aspects from design to decommissioning across different scales—from grid-scale to residential units under 20 kWh—and includes safe battery handling guidelines. The upcoming 2026 edition introduces significant changes: mandatory large-scale fire testing by burning an entire container of batteries; dual explosion control measures requiring both deflagration prevention (NFPA69) and venting systems (NFPA68); comprehensive emergency response plans for all installations regardless of size; hazard mitigation analysis requirements evaluating critical safety system survivability during thermal runaway events; introduction of Thermal Runaway Propagation Protection Systems aimed at minimizing cell-to-cell propagation risk using advanced technologies like NOVEC aerosol or liquid nitrogen cooling solutions. These updates aim to enhance overall safety standards through rigorous testing, training, evaluation processes ensuring reliability against potential hazards inherent within energy storage operations.

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Speaker

Nicholas Bartlett
Fire Marshal
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
USA

Talk of session: Quality Indicators in Large Scale Storage Systems: What to Look For

As the share of fluctuating electricity producers (PV and wind power) increases, energy storage systems will have to take on more functions in the grid. Batteries play a key role here; from commercial and industrial storage systems to utility-scale storage for multiple uses, the requirements are rising. Key quality indicators are not only safety (including functional safety) but also reliability as well as performance, defined by efficiency and effectiveness, over an ideally long service life. Site-specific requirements, such as noise generation, are also important considerations. This session will examine these aspects from different perspectives, offering recommendations beyond existing standards based on operational experience.

Further Talks of this session: