[Exclusive] Last Year's ESS Fire Damage Hits 45 Billion Won 'Record High'... Fire Agency Budget Only 1.1%

Firefighters are conducting extinguishing operations following a fire at the energy storage system (ESS) of SK Energy's Ulsan plant that occurred in 2022.
[Photo by Ulsan Fire Department]

Last year, the damage caused by accidents related to domestic 'Energy Storage Systems (ESS)' amounted to 45 billion KRW. During the previous Moon Jae-in administration, ESS distribution was expanded as part of policies to strengthen renewable energy, but there are criticisms that the establishment of safety management systems was relatively insufficient. In particular, the Fire Agency's budget for research and development (R&D) related to preventing and handling ESS accidents on site accounts for only about 1% of the total, making it difficult to identify specific causes of fires.

According to data submitted by the Fire Agency to Rep. Lee Ju-hwan of the People Power Party on the 23rd, there were a total of 9 ESS fires last year, with property damage amounting to 44.8 billion KRW, an increase of about 32 times compared to 1.365 billion KRW the previous year. This figure surpasses the previous highest ESS fire damage of 20.5 billion KRW in 2018. Due to the characteristics of ESS facilities, the proportion installed inside buildings has increased, and failure to suppress fires early has caused damage to spread inside the buildings.

ESS (Energy Storage System) is a device that stores generated electricity and releases it when power is needed. For example, in solar power generation, which is greatly affected by weather, electricity produced during the daytime is stored in ESS facilities and used overnight. With the strengthening of carbon neutrality, the domestic distribution of ESS has greatly increased, and as of January this year, the scale of facilities nationwide reached 2,784 units and 10.17 GWh (gigawatt-hours). This amount is equivalent to producing about 150,000 electric vehicle batteries.

The problem is that despite the steady increase in related fire accidents, the proportion of the Fire Agency's R&D budget for investigating and handling ESS fire causes is gradually decreasing. According to the Fire Agency, the 'ESS and Hydrogen Facility Fire Safety R&D' budget is 3.42 billion KRW this year, a 9.5% decrease compared to 3.78 billion KRW in 2021. During the same period, the share of the ESS budget in the total Fire Agency budget decreased by 0.6 percentage points from 1.7% to 1.1%.

As a result, among the 9 ESS fire accidents last year, 7 were classified as 'unknown' because the cause of ignition could not be determined. Over the past six years (2017?2022), out of 44 related accidents, 30 (68.1%) were of unknown cause, approaching 70% of the total. This is because there is no specialized on-site personnel within the Fire Agency to identify ESS fire causes. A Fire Agency official stated, "Except for personnel at the National Fire Research Institute, there are no specialized personnel within the Fire Agency dedicated to ESS fire accidents," adding, "We receive assistance in fire investigation through consultations with experts such as professors in fire protection engineering."

In response to the repeated ESS fire accidents threatening public safety, the government last month initiated the construction of the world's first ESS Safety Evaluation Center. The evaluation center will be built on a 16,654㎡ site in Wanju-gun, Jeonbuk Province, with four above-ground floors, aiming for completion in December 2024. The center will include facility testing spaces, research and education facilities, and demonstration facilities for major renewable energy sources such as ESS and fuel cells.