Recommendations for energy storage compartment used in renewable energy project

Abstract

The growth in renewable energy (RE) projects showed the importance of utility electrical energy storage. High-capacity batteries are used in most RE projects to store energy generated from those facilities. High-capacity batteries require a compartment that satisfies the condition needed for the best operation and battery lifetime utilization. Batteries compartment design recommendations are not directly available to engineers. Few recommendations are scattered in fires, building codes, and IEEE recommended practices. A comprehensive review of all available recommendations given in codes, IEEE, and by some major manufacturers was done. This paper provides recommendations to engineers working on RE projects on how to design and build a batteries compartments that ensure safe handling, operation, and end of life for those batteries. Those recommendations are essential to avoid near-fatal incidents and to guarantee human and system safety. Staff and fire safety, compartment design, battery placement, and end-of-life storage recommendations were presented in this work.

Keywords

• Battery compartment
• Health and safety
• Energy storage
• Recommendations
• Renewable energy projects