In recent years, fire and explosion accidents have occurred from time to time in the energy storage power station, resulting in casualties of employees, and even the sacrifice of firefighters in the process of accident rescue. Some of these accidents are caused by the problems of the battery body or management system used in the energy storage project (for example, the sudden internal short-circuit fault of the battery leads to out of control heating), and some are caused by potential safety risks in the energy storage site (for example, the environment of the battery room or the decoration materials are not up to standard). These events have sounded the alarm for the safety management in the operation of electrochemical energy storage power station project (hereinafter referred to as "energy storage project"). Based on the legislative changes related to energy storage projects in the past two years, this paper briefly combs the regulatory focus on the operation safety of energy storage projects.

1、 Recent legislative developments in safety supervision of energy storage projects

The national development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the Interim Measures for the safety management of electrochemical energy storage power stations (Exposure Draft) (hereinafter referred to as the "safety management draft") on August 24, 2021, which requires full life-cycle supervision of the access, production and quality control, design consulting, construction and acceptance, grid connection and scheduling, operation and maintenance, decommissioning management, emergency management and accident disposal of energy storage projects.

The draft of safety management defines the management policy of "safety first, prevention first and comprehensive treatment" for energy storage projects, and requires the construction unit of energy storage projects to establish a hierarchical safety risk management and control system and an accident potential troubleshooting and management system. At the same time, the safety management draft also further clarifies the details of safety supervision. For example, it is required to complete the filing of energy storage projects before the commencement of construction, so as to ensure the "three Simultaneities" between safety facilities and the main project. During the project design, it is prohibited to deploy energy storage power stations in densely populated places, high-rise buildings, underground buildings, flammable and explosive places, and pass the fire acceptance before the energy storage projects are put into operation.

Although the safety management draft has not been implemented, it can be predicted from the draft that the safety supervision of energy storage projects will become the top priority of energy storage supervision. This focus is also reflected in the notice of the comprehensive Department of the National Energy Administration on strengthening the safety management of electrochemical energy storage power stations (gnzts [2022] No. 37) (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice of the National Energy Administration") issued and effective by the National Energy Administration on April 26, 2022. The notice of the energy administration emphasizes "people first, life first" and requires that great attention be paid to the safety management of energy storage projects.

In addition, the notice of the energy administration also stipulates in detail the responsibilities of the relevant participants in the energy storage project: the owner (project legal person) is the main body responsible for the safe operation of the energy storage project, and (if the operation and maintenance unit is entrusted to carry out the project operation and maintenance) should clarify the safety responsibilities of the owner and the operation and maintenance party, supervise the trustee to strictly implement the regulations and standards, and clarify that the fire safety responsible person and the fire safety manager perform the fire safety management responsibilities. In the notice of the general office of the national development and Reform Commission and the comprehensive Department of the National Energy Administration on further promoting the participation of new energy storage in the power market and dispatching application (fgbgy [2022] No. 475) prepared and issued by the national development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration on June 7, 2022, all regions are further required to strengthen the construction and operation safety supervision of new energy storage, and urge relevant power enterprises to strictly implement the requirements of the notice of the energy administration, And encourage power enterprises to actively participate in the construction of national energy storage project safety monitoring information platform.

For the energy storage project of echelon utilization of new power batteries, the National Energy Administration issued the management specification for new energy storage projects (Provisional) (Guo Neng FA Ji Ji GUI [2021] No. 47) on September 24, 2021, which stipulates that the concept of full life cycle should be followed, and the safety assessment report should be obtained for echelon utilization of batteries. For the built and newly-built power battery echelon utilization and energy storage projects, an online monitoring platform should be established to monitor the battery performance parameters in real time, conduct regular maintenance and safety evaluation, and make an emergency plan. We have noticed that in practice, the regulatory authorities still adopt a stricter standard for the approval of new energy storage projects using batteries in echelons.

2、 Remediation plan and action for the safety of energy storage projects

In terms of law enforcement, on November 30, 2021, the office of the work safety commission of the State Council issued the special rectification plan for potential safety risks of electrochemical energy storage power stations (Anwei Office [2021] No. 9) (hereinafter referred to as the "rectification plan"), requiring local competent departments and enterprises to inspect the completed and under construction energy storage projects in place to prevent safety risks.

After the "rectification plan" was issued, we noticed that many local competent departments have successively issued specific risk assessment plans and carried out special treatment of safety risks of energy storage projects. Taking the special governance in Beijing and Shanghai as an example, we have the following observations on the regulatory situation:

1. Major regulatory departments. In addition to the emergency management department and the fire department, the daily main supervision departments of the safety supervision of energy storage projects also involve the development and reform department, the energy department, the industry and information technology department and the market supervision department (for example, investigate and deal with the manufacturers and suppliers of unqualified energy storage batteries). When an accident is held accountable, in addition to administrative punishment, depending on the nature of the illegal act and the degree of harm, the persons responsible for the energy storage project may also be investigated for criminal responsibility by the judicial authorities.

2. Key regulatory areas. The safety risk assessment of energy storage projects involves many dimensions, including the planning and site selection of energy storage projects (such as project establishment approval or filing documents), design and plane layout (such as fire acceptance, fire separation), buildings and structures (such as fire resistance rating and safety exit setting), energy storage system safety (such as battery quality safety, fire and explosion prevention measures) Fire protection system and safety facilities (such as fire alarm system, lightning protection design standards) and safety and emergency management (such as personnel qualification, safety production rules and regulations, emergency plan preparation), etc. The implementation of safety risk assessment involves not only the inspection of documents and materials by the regulatory authorities, but also the on-site investigation of energy storage projects.

3. The "red line" of safety supervision of energy storage projects. In case of some specific circumstances, the energy storage project may be directly identified as a high-risk level in the safety risk assessment, and will be ordered to rectify in a timely manner in the follow-up supervision and rectification. If the safety cannot be guaranteed before or during the elimination of major accident hidden dangers, it may be ordered to stop production and business for rectification or even shut down. Such situations include but are not limited to: the design and construction units of the energy storage power station do not have the corresponding qualifications, the energy storage power station is set in the basement (semi basement) of the building, and the grid connection test report issued by the qualified unit is not obtained when the energy storage system with voltage level of 10 (6) kV and above is connected, The battery management system cannot operate normally (unable to monitor the battery status in real time, upload alarm information in time, and start the battery electrical protection in time), the use and storage of flammable and explosive dangerous chemicals in the energy storage power station, and there have been more than major safety accidents within three years, or there has been more than one general safety accident of death in the past year. The energy storage project operator should pay special attention to avoid the above situations.

3、 Our suggestion

Safety is no trivial matter, and energy storage should be especially cautious. Local emergency management departments are also organizing or will organize a major safety inspection (see the "15 measures for safety production" issued, the national safety production inspection is about to be carried out! "), We remind the energy storage project operators and investors:

1. Pay attention to relevant legislative developments in energy storage safety management, fully and accurately identify and implement regulatory requirements, and timely sort out and reduce the safety compliance risks of energy storage projects in combination with the special treatment of safety risks of energy storage projects by the central and local governments.

2. Pay attention to the relevant legislative developments of the work safety law, strictly implement the work safety responsibility system and the requirements of the work safety law, and strengthen supplier management (for more discussion, please refer to the work safety management agreement to protect the safety of enterprises).

3. Regularly conduct EHS internal and external compliance audits, timely investigate and rectify hidden dangers in energy storage safety management, and prevent safety accidents. If necessary, please contact your EHS lawyer or consultant.