Overview of battery safety tests in standards for stationary battery energy storage systems

The newly approved Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries [1] sets minimum requirements, among others, for performance, durability and safety of batteries, covering many types of batteries and their applications. Batteries for stationary battery energy storage systems (SBESS), which have not been covered by any European safety regulation so far, will have to comply with a number of safety tests. A standardisation request was submitted to CEN/CENELEC to develop one or more harmonised standards that lay out the minimum safety requirements for SBESS. Batteries that have been tested according to the harmonized standards are presumed to be in conformity with the (requirements of) the Regulation. This overview of currently available safety standards for batteries for stationary battery energy storage systems shows that a number of standards exist that include some of the safety tests required by the Regulation concerning batteries and waste batteries, forming a good basis for the development of the regulatory tests. Nevertheless, none of the standards covers all the tests listed in the Regulation. The current report provides a comparative analysis of safety tests in various existing standards and attempts to identify gaps to be addressed.