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RobotRisk / Samsung SDI / 2020-02-06

Samsung SDI batteries implicated in South Korea government ESS fire probe

S3 · 02/06
2020 · Samsung SDI · ESS facility, South Jeolla Province, South Korea

Record

CompanySamsung SDI
Categoryenergy storage
Typeregulatory
Date02/06
2020
Time of daynot documented
LocationESS facility, South Jeolla Province, South Korea
SeverityS3 (recall, enforcement, or fleet-wide fault)
Scalepart of a 27-fire national ESS incident cluster
Confidencehigh
VerificationCited source on file; not independently re-verified
SourceThe Korea Times

What happened

A South Korean government-led investigation into an Aug-Oct 2019 cluster of ESS fires found the state of charge of a Samsung SDI battery at a damaged South Jeolla Province facility had reached 95%, five points above the recommended threshold; the government attributed several of the fires to battery malfunction, which Samsung SDI disputed as unrelated to the fire cause.

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