Kelly Sarber是Strategic Management的首席执行官兼NY-BEST(纽约电池产业贸易组织)的副主席。Scott M. Bryant是Fire & Alliance的总裁兼首席执行官。

Kelly Sarber is CEO of Strategic Management and vice chair of NY-BEST, a battery industry trade group in New York. Scott M. Bryant is president and CEO of Fire & Alliance.

随着储能开发商继续加大实施公用事业规模电池项目的力度,采取强有力和积极的宣传和教育变得越来越重要,因为社区支持已成为获得其他批准的先决条件。随着政策与政治的碰撞,像纽约州这样的州正在考虑将加强围绕安全的宣传作为获得其他必要条件(包括电力购买协议和地方许可,如区划和消防法规执行)的先决条件。

As energy storage developers continue to ramp up efforts to implement utility-scale battery projects, adopting strong and proactive outreach and education is becoming more important since community support has become a precursor to securing other approvals. As policies collide with politics, states like New York are considering requiring stronger outreach around safety as necessary to set the stage to gain other entitlements including power purchase agreements and local permissions like zoning and fire code enforcement.

在最近几个地点发生火灾之前,包括纽约和加利福尼亚在内,储能项目被视为有些“良性”的,其对气候友好的益处超过任何感知的负面影响。不幸的是,随着最近一系列火灾的发生,公众开始质疑由于事件广为报道导致的对安全要求的感知缺失,这些项目不会产生影响的看法不再成立。在每种情况下,没有人受伤,持续时间很短,一旦出现热异常,设备的行为都如预期。但由此产生的新闻报道和相关的社区关切引发了对信息差和事故发生前没有响应者宣传的质疑。这种对媒体实时反应不足的专家反应增加了社区的关切,突显了该行业有必要做好准备,为新闻周期提供背景和事实信息。

Prior to recent fires at a number of sites, including in New York and California, energy storage projects were treated as somewhat “benign” with their climate-friendly benefits outweighing any perceived negative impacts. Unfortunately, with the recent spate of fires, the perception of these projects as having no impact no longer rings true, as the public begins to question the perceived lack of safety requirements due to incidents being widely covered in the news. In each case no one was hurt, the duration was small and the equipment acted as planned once there were thermal abnormalities. But the resulting news coverage and corresponding community concerns raised questions around information gaps and lack of first responder outreach prior to the incidents. This lack of expert responses to the media in real time served to increase community concerns, highlighting the need for the industry to be better prepared to provide context and factual information for inclusion in the press cycle.

由于这些进展,我们的储能行业组织NY-BEST正在与纽约州最近召集的一个特别工作组合作,就消防安全和社区宣传提供行业最佳实践。我们早期的一些讨论强调了与系统设计、运行特性相关的透明度,以及加强第一响应者规划的要求,以在项目刚宣布时帮助获得社区支持。NY-BEST关于消防安全提出的新政策包括标准化的应急预案,旨在规定这些设施可能发生的每种合理情景以及解决这些情景的危险和适当的应对策略。全国范畴内的第一响应者社区需要接受同等水平的培训标准化,而不仅仅是在城市地区。

Due to these developments, our energy storage trade group, NY-BEST, is working collaboratively with a recently convened New York State task force to provide industry best practices for fire safety and community outreach. Some of our early discussions highlight increased transparency related to system design, operating characteristics, and strengthening requirements for first responder planning to assist with community support when projects are first announced. New policies offered by NY-BEST around fire safety include standardization of emergency response plans meant to capture every reasonable scenario that occurs at these facilities along with the hazards and appropriate response tactics for solving them. Training for the first responder community needs to undergo the same level of standardization around the nation and not just in urban locations.

储能行业的开发商应统一准备消防部门的成员,使用这些培训平台中概述的新的稳健应急预案来管理这些低频高危事件。此外,一旦这些设施发生事故,运营商必须有义务在合理的时间框架内分享根本原因分析,以使行业能够解决出现的任何可能改进安全性的缺陷。这将使应急管理官员及其所在的选举领导层能够快速响应、学习和实施应急策略,以防止类似事件的发生。披露不能由律师驱动,而必须由安全和对这些设施所在社区的尊重来驱动。

Developers in the storage industry should uniformly prepare members of the fire services to manage these low frequency, high hazard events using the new and robust emergency response plans outlined in these training platforms. In addition, once an incident occurs at these facilities, the operator must be obligated to share a root cause analysis within a reasonable time frame to allow the industry to address any shortcomings that emerge that can improve safety for future installations. This will enable the emergency response officials and the elected leadership they work for to quickly respond, learn and implement mitigation tactics to prevent similar events. Disclosure cannot be driven by lawyers but must be driven by safety and respect for the communities in which these facilities reside.

2019年,美国发生的首起重大储能火灾事故发生在亚利桑那州的麦基肯电池储能系统中,当时刚颁布了规管固定能源储存的全国消防保护协会(NFPA)855号法规。NFPA用不到两年的时间对这些设备施加了重大安全控制。

One of the first significant energy storage fire incidents in the U.S. occurred in 2019 at the McMicken Battery Energy Storage System in Arizona shortly after the inception of National Fire Protection Agency, or NFPA, 855 which regulates stationary energy storage. It took the NFPA less than two years to place significant safety controls on these installations.

几个月前NFPA 855技术委员会的会议具体关注监管机构和社区成员的担忧。公众需要理解,这些专家有持续、强有力的安全承诺,旨在了解为什么以及如何发生事故,并有灵活性实施可能导致更安全操作的法规改进。

The meeting of the NFPA 855 technical committee a few months ago focused specifically on the concerns of regulators and community members. The public needs to appreciate there is a continuing, strong commitment to safety from these experts with the intent to understand why and how incidents occur and to have flexibility to implement code improvements that may lead to safer operations.

NFPA 855全国技术委员会一直在努力要求对储能系统进行大规模消防测试、爆炸控制和安全功能,以自主方式运行,每个组件都同等重要。在2026年发布的修订周期中,有望看到更好识别和表征电池储存失效引起的火灾或烟雾所产生排放类型的要求,这将推动相关官员根据当地消防法规批准系统。将储能系统的冗余性从2小时增加到24小时的需求也已提议提交NFPA委员会以纳入标准。预计此更改将通过并作为NFPA 855下一次更新的一部分发布。

NFPA 855’s national technical committee has worked diligently to require large-scale fire testing, explosions controls and safety features for energy storage systems to operate in an autonomous fashion, with each component equally important. In the revision cycle to be published in 2026, expect to see requirements to better identify and characterize the types of emissions created by fires or fumes from battery storage failures, which will drive system approvals by relevant officials under the local fire code. The need to increase redundancy in energy storage systems from two hours to 24 hours has also been proposed to the NFPA committee for adoption into the standard. It is anticipated this change will pass and be published as part of the next update to NFPA 855.

从实际角度来看,对负责在电池安装现场应对紧急情况的第一响应者和当地消防部门来说,拥有最高水平、配备最新控制措施的特定培训和事故响应计划至关重要。这种承诺需要由开发商及其关键消防安全顾问承担,以与当地消防部门合作并培训他们使用这些最佳实践。作为开发商,这是获得这些项目公众支持的第一步。同样重要的是,向更广泛的社区传达这些技术规定的法规和标准如何降低任何风险和危害,同时展示如果确定或发现需要新的控制或要求,我们承诺改进监管环境。

From a practical standpoint, it is paramount that first responders and local fire departments tasked with responding to emergencies at battery installations have specific training and incident response plans that are of the highest caliber with the latest controls. This commitment needs to fall on the developer and their key fire safety consultant to use these best practices in working with and training local fire departments. As a developer, it is the first, crucial step in securing public support for these projects. Equally important, is the communication to the broader community of how these technically prescribed codes and standards will alleviate any risks and hazards while also demonstrating commitments to make improvements to the regulatory environment if new controls or requirements are deemed or discovered to be necessary.

开发商外联的关键意图是确保社区成员意识到、参与并支持电池项目。对于典型的大型独立电池安装来说,成本达几亿美元,宣传是一项非常值得进行的投资,因为它将为项目的发展轨迹奠定基础。人们很快就会理解电池的需求及其发挥的作用。如果从使用和安全的角度考虑该地点是可接受的,社区通常会转向探索包括就业、税收、能源弹性和支持绿色能源转型的好处。

The key intention of developer outreach is to make sure that community members are aware of, involved in, and supportive of the battery project. With capital costs for a typical large, stand-alone battery installation in the several hundred-million-dollar range, outreach is an investment that is well worth making as it will set the stage for a project’s development trajectory. People quickly understand the need for batteries and the role that they play. If the location is considered acceptable from a use and safety standpoint, communities typically will pivot to explore benefits including jobs, taxes, energy resiliency and support for the green energy transition.

经验表明,如果社区和开发商之间保持开放的沟通,与消防部门保持持续的信息流动,并坦率地讨论储能事故的风险与人们每天面临的相关风险相比,大多数人会得出储能项目可以安全运行的结论。更好的是,如果发生事故,他们会安心地知道有适当的预案到位,并且当地的响应人员得到了保护和培训。

Experience shows that most people will conclude that energy storage projects can be operated safely if there has been a process of open communication between the community and developer, ongoing information flow with the fire department, and frank discussions of the risks of an energy storage incident as compared to relatable risks that people face every day. Better still, they will feel comfortable in the knowledge that appropriate plans are in place, and local responders are protected and trained, if an incident were to occur.

一旦社区感觉到安全性和任何其他影响(如区划使用、外观、噪音等)得到解决,并且他们对这些风险感到舒适并选择接受轻微的影响,储能的好处就会更容易看到。尽管每个社区都有其独特的特征,但通常时间和关系的建立会就实质问题取得公平的辩论。尽管我们面临其他不利因素,但我们的行业通过强调安全以获得社区支持的投资,应该能够克服一些这些发展挑战,实现项目的成功开发、建设和运营。

once communities feel that safety and any other impacts — zoning use, aesthetics, noise, etc. — are addressed, and they become comfortable with these risks and choose to accept slight impacts, the benefits of energy storage can be better appreciated. While each community has their own unique characteristics, generally time and relationship building will earn a fair debate on merits. While we face other headwinds, our industry should be able to navigate some of these development challenges by investing in community support through an emphasis on safety, leading to successful project development, construction and operations.