“After a five-month investigation into fires at 23 energy storage installations in South Korea, an expert panel has blamed poor-quality installations, faulty operating procedures, missing protections against electrical shocks and lack of overall control systems, several South Korean media outlets reported after the June 11 release of the committee’s findings.
The probe also revealed manufacturing defects in lithium-ion battery cells from one undisclosed manufacturer, but did not find that those flaws ignited the fires.
“Battery manufacturers, system integrator companies and power conversion system companies are all at fault,” Kim Jung-hoon, an electrical engineering professor at Hongik University who headed the committee, said at a press conference, according to a June 12 article in the Korea Joongang Daily newspaper. The panel, however, refrained from assigning liability for the series of fires that began in August 2017. “The investigation committee is focused on finding the cause of the accidents, not finding who is responsible,” Jung-hoon said.
The government, which suspended operations at 522 of the country’s 1,490 energy storage facilities as part of its audit, plans to give the facility owners discounts on power to make up for losses, according to a June 11 article in the Korean Herald newspaper.”
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S7P Global Market Intelligence 14 June 2019.