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Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are a key to the success of power utilities that rely on renewable energy. Whether the BESS is in place to ensure power grid stability or is deployed on a smaller scale to help businesses store solar power from their own panels, maintaining their viability requires regular inspections and repairs.
Maintaining safe conditions in and around BESS sites is important yet challenging due to potential temperature fluctuations reaching critical levels and the health risks associated with physically contacting materials within the battery cells. Similar risks are present throughout the manufacturing process, transportation, and initial development stages.
The solution is to perform inspections using an infrared camera. Infrared cameras offer a non-contact, reliable solution for monitoring thermal patterns and identifying issues at every stage of a battery system’s lifecycle. Whether used for handheld inspections and spot checks or integrated into a battery production line, thermal cameras provide a safe and effective way to detect small heat-related faults before they escalate into major problems.
So, what are some of the risks for working with BESS?
Let’s review some key battery inspection applications and examine how thermal imaging contributes to early fault identification, fire prevention, data-driven insights, and improved safety measures.
Industries working with battery systems must take precaution to prevent thermal runaway, a dangerous chain reaction in which rising temperatures spread from one battery cell to another, potentially leading to fires and the release of harmful gases.
During battery production, the process can begin when electrical connections are made and current begins flowing between components, causing a continuous rise in temperature. As the battery heats up, the system voltage decreases resulting in increased current, further accelerating the temperature rise. If left undetected, thermal runaway can result in damaged batteries, product failures, and even facility fires.
Manufacturers can manage thermal runaway with the help of automated thermal monitoring. Fixed-mount thermal cameras can be stationed at storage facilities or along production lines to monitor batteries for rising temperatures. Many of these kinds of thermal sensors are loaded with on-the-edge analysis software, so they can sense temperature changes and send alarm information directly into an industrial PLC for data logging and even automatically trigger suppression systems, should temperatures rise beyond a user-defined threshold.
An electric vehicle battery being inspected for hot spots with a FLIR A70 Smart Sensor Fixed-Mount Thermal Camera.
Large BESS battery packs are typically assembled from individual cells, which are welded together to form larger modules, and then placed inside larger battery packs.
Defective welds can result in resistance issues, diminished output, and shorter lifespans.
Thermal imaging offers a reliable method for identifying poor welds, as areas with higher resistance exhibit noticeable temperature variations under electrical load, signalling potential defects.
Cell leakage can happen at any point in the manufacturing process. Corrosive materials from the battery are almost invisible to the human eye and can both damage the skin and ruin the product.
When the seal of a battery cell is compromised, the liquid electrolyte can leak into the outer layers, creating a detectable temperature variation. Thermal imaging cameras can swiftly identify these minute leaks within seconds, without requiring direct contact with the cells.
Integrating thermal cameras into end-of-line testing and load cycling offers a reliable method for verifying production quality before product shipment.
By detecting temperature anomalies, these cameras help identify hot spots at connection points within the battery pack and overheating in cells or modules, significantly reducing the risk of fires.
The temperature of a failing battery can instantly rise from a normal condition to an explosive combustion. High-speed thermal imaging is on the best ways for capturing data the moment it happens
The Battery Innovation Center (BIC) in Newberry, Indiana frequently relies on FLIR high-speed thermal imaging cameras during nail penetration tests, which simulates a short circuit condition to induce combustion. Before adding high-speed thermal to their testing, BIC researchers attached dozens of thermocouples at a time to measure a battery’s temperature during testing. This provided only limited data and consumed significant time when setting up each test.
Thermal imaging allows BIC to monitor and record rapid temperature changes across the entire battery surface then analyze the entire event frame-by-frame for a deeper understand of a cells behavior when damaged. “When we do a test, we want to collect as much data as possible,” explains Ashley Gordon, Director of Programs at BIC. “We want to have confidence that our data is accurate.”
Not only were researchers able to monitor the entire battery surface, but they could also more accurately evaluate the materials being expelled during tests. Understanding how a battery short-circuits and how the material will ignite enables researchers to better understand the potential danger and how to best mitigate damage should it reach failure.
Battery Energy Storage Systems are susceptible to thermal runaway, which can not only lead to fires that are difficult to extinguish but can also release hazardous gases that pose health risks to nearby communities and can potentially cause environmental damage through soil and water contamination. In the worst-case scenarios, BESS fires can lead to property damage and evacuations.
Automated thermal imaging cameras are the go-to solution for preventing disaster at BESS sites. While traditional flame detectors can be used as a preventative measure, they fail in the early stages of a fire detection due to their reliance on visible flames or smoke which may not be immediately present.
Thermal imaging is significantly more reliable as it can trigger alarms and suppression systems from small rises in temperature before anything reaches combustion.
Thermal imaging has emerged as a transformative technology across multiple scientific disciplines, offering a non-invasive and highly accurate method for detecting and analysing temperature variations. This technology is now playing a pivotal role in medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, industrial applications, engineering solutions, and more.
Rail operator Northern is trialing a new state-of-the-art train to help radically improve infrastructure issues and highlight damaged tracks, led by FLIR’s industry-leading thermographic cameras.
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