UL1973 safety certification booster liquid flow battery project development landing
UL1973 safety certification opens doors, speeds up project development, flow battery maker Invinity says
Vanadium flow supplier Invinity Energy recently received a critical safety certification UL 1973, this can help companies speed up the market rollout of their technology and simplify the otherwise complex project development process.
Anglo-American flow battery provider Invinity Energy's recent attainment of a key safety certification will open up doors for its technology and streamline complicated project development steps.
Matt Harper, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Invinity, said that although projects can be completed without these certifications, certification to standards such as UL1973 and NFPA855 can greatly shorten the time required to obtain on-site permits, commissioning and other stages.
While projects can be done without them, being certified to standards like UL1973 and NFPA855 makes the “mind numbing” process of going through site-level permitting, commissioning and other development stages much shorter, Invinity chief commercial officer (CCO) Matt Harper said.
Harper was interviewed at the RE 2022 event in California last week and said that a few days ago, the vanadium oxide flow battery (VRFB) supplier Invinity announced that its third-generation battery module VS3 was UL1973 certified.
Harper spoke to Energy-Storage.news at last week's RE 2022 industry event in California, a few days after vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) provider Invinity announced that its third-generation battery modules, VS3, got UL1973 certification.
UL1973 it involves the safe operation of the battery energy storage system at the power station level, simulating and evaluating its ability to withstand simulated abuse conditions within the charging and discharging parameters specified by the manufacturer, thereby evaluating the safety, reliability and compatibility of equipment, systems and components.
UL1973 concerns the safe operation of stationary battery energy storage systems, evaluating their ability to withstand simulated abuse conditions within charge and discharge parameters specified by the manufacturer.
Therefore, UL1973 has become the main standard for battery energy storage system safety, along with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard NFPA855 (covering safe installation practices), UL9540(UL's installation safety guide) and UL9540A (famous induced thermal runaway test and evaluation of cell level heat spread or heat diffusion possibility).
As such, it has become the major standard for battery storage system safety, alongside the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard NFPA855, which covers safe installation practices, UL9540, UL's installation safety guidelines and UL9540A, the famous test to induce thermal runaway and assess likelihood of fire spreading, or propagating, from one cell to others.
Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which store energy in batteries, VRFBs store energy in liquid electrolyte storage tanks separate from the battery stack, and they do not experience thermal runaway, which means that it is relatively easy for flow battery suppliers to pass safety tests.
Unlike lithium-ion batteries which store energy inside the cells, VRFBs store energy in tanks of liquid electrolyte separately to the cell stack. They do not go into thermal runaway, which means it might be assumed going through safety tests would be relatively easy for a flow battery provider to pass through.
"They're fairly easy to pass, but that doesn't mean the test itself doesn't have a lot of thermal sensors wrapped around the flow battery system," Harper said.
“They are fairly easy to get through, but it doesn't mean that the tests themselves don't have this massive amount of stuff wrapped around them," Harper said.
While UL9540, and UL9540A in particular, is primarily concerned with fire safety, UL1973 is a relatively "broader" safety standard requirement, which makes the Invinity team spend a lot of time preparing for this test.
While UL9540 and specifically UL9540A focus directly on fire safety, UL1973 is a “much broader” standard, and required the Invinity team to spend a lot of time preparing for a test that examines “every aspect of battery safety ”.
Therefore, in some ways, flow battery technology is significantly different from lithium battery technology (such as safety), but it also means that various aspects of the technology need to be explained to testers who are not familiar with flow battery technology.
In some ways, therefore the company benefitted from its tech having certain key differences to lithium-ion, but also meant various aspects of the technology needed to be explained to testers less familiar with the flow battery technology.
In other words, a lot of the work behind getting certified "is difficult to have a standard process to refer to like lithium," Harper said.
In other words, a lot of the work behind getting the certification “is less standard than what gets done by a lot of the other battery companies out there," Harper said.
"But the UL1973 could demonstrate some of the unique advantages of flow battery technology, particularly around fire safety.
“But it allows us to really sort of emphasise some of the unique advantages of the technology, especially around fire safety ."
having the right certification is very important to obtain bank guarantees, which also makes it easier for developers to obtain project financing, so it plays an important role in their decision-making process of selecting technology and corresponding suppliers.
Having the right certifications is important for bankability, making it much easier for developers to get project financing and therefore playing a vital role in their decision-making process on selecting technologies and technology providers.
However, according to Matt Harper , UL1973 certification in the whole development process is important from start to finish.
According to Matt Harper though, certifications matter from end-to-end throughout the whole development process.
"Even before you get asked about the bank guarantee, if you want to install an energy storage device in the grid without these safety certifications, it is a very cumbersome process. It takes longer to pass the first-level permit on site, pass the commissioning application, and other admission qualifications.
“Even before you get to questions of bankability, if you're trying to install a battery in the grid that doesn't have those kinds of certifications, you could do it and we've done it, but it's just a mind-numbing process. It takes a lot longer to go through the site-level permitting, go through the commissioning process, to get everything signed off.
Fire safety certification testing helps build confidence for the industry around "many aspects of technology," Kumaraswamy said.
Being able to point to verified test results helps build confidence for the industry around “many aspects of the technology," Kumaraswamy said.
"From the perspective of financing, insurance and other aspects, it firmly proves the importance of technology to obtain safety certification. In addition, it is also a highly differentiated way to fight competition and bring benefits to customers. "
“From a financing perspective, from an insurance perspective, from so many dimensions, it proves conclusively what the technology can do for you, in a safe manner and I would also say in a highly differentiated manner against competition and deliver the benefits for the customers ."
"If you have UL1973 or UL9540 certification, then the local electrical inspector will look at it and say, 'You've met the national standard, go ahead '. "
“Whereas if you've got, UL1973 or UL9540 certification, then the local electrical inspector is going to look at and say, 'OK, you've met that, you've met the national standard, just go ahead '."
Given the broader issue of bank surety, suppliers need to be able to demonstrate to customers that their technology has the ability to work throughout the life cycle. For less mature technology companies like VRFB, unlike lithium battery energy storage systems, it is easy to obtain bank guarantees for the entire system.
To think about the broader question of bankability, providers need to be able to show customers their technology will do what it's claimed it can do over the lifetime of the project. For companies working in a less mature technology like VRFBs, as opposed to lithium-ion batteries, there is no “magic bullet” that will make a system bankable.
However, at the same time as third-party verification of system performance or various aspects of system performance, security standards and certification are beginning to build a case for bank guarantee feasibility.
However, alongside third-party verifications of system performance or of various aspects of system performance, safety standards and certifications “start to build a case” for bankability.
Fluence, a battery energy storage system integrator and technology supplier, often working with lithium-ion battery chemicals, also recently announced the results of its UL9540A combustion tests.
Battery storage system integrator and technology provider Fluence, which does typically work with lithium-ion battery chemistries, recently announced results of its UL9540A burn tests, as reported by Energy-Storage.news a few days ago.
At last week's RE conference, Kiran Kumaraswamy, Fluence's vice president of growth and head of business, also pointed to different approaches to testing, standards and certification.
Also speaking to the site at RE last week, Fluence's VP of growth and head of commercial Kiran Kumaraswamy also pointed out the different ways in which testing, standards and certification matter.
Above is introduction to UL1973 and UL9540, for reference only, some of the material comes from Jiran Carbon Technology and does not represent the view of Ancojet's testing technology and is responsible for its authenticity. If you are involved in the content of the work, copyright and other issues, please contact us within 30 days, we will delete the content in the first time!
