Battery diagnostics company Volytica Diagnostics is urging the energy storage industry to shift its focus from adding more fire protection hardware to making better use of operational battery data to detect faults before they become safety incidents.
The company’s co-founder and managing director, Claudius Jehle, made the case following the recent fire at a 1.5 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in Bautzen, Germany. While the cause of the incident remains under investigation, Jehle argues it should prompt a broader discussion about preventive battery diagnostics rather than reactive safety measures.
He said the industry’s typical response after battery fires is to demand more temperature sensors, gas detection, smoke monitoring and fire suppression systems. While such technologies can help contain incidents and protect people and infrastructure, he said they generally respond only after a fault has already progressed.
Instead, Jehle argues that battery management systems (BMS) already collect thousands of voltage, current and temperature measurements that can be analyzed to identify developing faults days or even weeks before conventional alarms are triggered.
According to Jehle, advanced diagnostic software can detect subtle changes in cell voltages, internal resistance, balancing times and thermal behavior without requiring additional sensors. Rather than evaluating individual measurements, the software compares relationships between parameters, individual cells and historical operating patterns to identify abnormal behavior.
He cited an 80 MWh battery storage project in North America where a module exhibited increasingly abnormal thermal behavior over several weeks without triggering alarms from either the BMS or supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Subsequent analysis showed the developing fault had been detectable several days before it became critical.
Jehle said battery monitoring should complement, rather than replace, conventional fire protection measures. Early detection gives operators time to adjust operating conditions, inspect equipment or replace affected cells before faults escalate, while also improving risk management for investors and insurers.
He added that battery safety depends on combining battery management systems, fire protection, diagnostics, maintenance procedures and operational decision-making, rather than relying on hardware alone. Historical operating data can also help reconstruct events after an incident and support investigations into root causes.
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