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NFPA 855: What To Do for Data Centers When They Want to Change Out the Lead Acid Batteries to Lithium Ion?

NFPA 855 What To Do for Data Centers When They Want to Change Out the Lead Acid Batteries to Lithium Ion?

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NFPA 855: Partnering with AHJs to Implement Local Codes

NFPA 855 Partnering with AHJs to Implement Local Codes

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NFPA 855: Why is Partnering with Organizations like FSSA, NFPA & ICC Important?

NFPA 855 Why is Partnering with Organizations like FSSA, NFPA & ICC Important?

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NFPA 855: How to Work with Your AHJ on an HMA

NFPA 855 How to Work with Your AHJ on an HMA

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NFPA 855: Would Annunciator Panels have Made a Difference at the McMicken Arizona Lithium Ion Facility Fire?

NFPA 855: Would Annunciator Panels Have Made a Difference at the McMicken Arizona Lithium-Ion Facility Fire?

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NFPA 855: What is a Plume Study and Why is it Important to your Hazard Mitigation Analysis (HMA)?

NFPA 855: What is a Plume Study and Why is it Important to your Hazard Mitigation Analysis (HMA)?

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NFPA 855: How are battery manufacturers working with UL to create safer batteries?

NFPA 855: How are battery manufacturers working with UL to create safer batteries?

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NFPA 855: What is Hazard Mitigation Analysis and Why is it Important?

What is Hazard Mitigation Analysis and Why is it Important?

 

The Hazard Mitigation Analysis (HMA) is step number one. This is the first thing that you as manufacturers, you as installers, you as property managers that are looking for properties, need to talk about; do we have an HMA for our batteries? I had someone come up to me recently and say, well, sometimes when we pick a site, we don't know the technology. Okay, you normally have a couple in mind or two, or three. Make an HMA with all three technologies and then we can just get rid of the ones that you don't end up using. But let's start this hazard mitigation analysis early. Because what it does is it looks at the consequences of failure. And if you look at the Phoenix Fire Code, we require this for every single battery installation. NFPA 855 and the base International Fire Code (IFC) has three different criteria.


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NFPA 855: International Code Council and Your Local Authority Having Jurisdiction

NFPA 855 Series: International Code Council and your Local Authority Having Jurisdiction

In the ICC, Chapter 12 is what deals with lithium ion and other batteries Currently, there's a committee called the Fire Code Action Committee that brings in industry, manufacturers, AHJ’s, like myself, and experts. We're working on different parts of Chapter 12 for energy issues. Be careful, just because a jurisdiction adopts Chapter 12, we might amend it. In the City of Phoenix, we amended Chapter 12, heavily. Ours is probably a little bit more restrictive than most of the country. I would say our sprinkler density, that we'll talk about here in a little bit, is more restrictive. We wanna require our AHJs to be more restrictive, so be careful. Always look at the code amendments from that local jurisdiction.

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NFPA 855 Series: How Do Fire Codes Impact Lithium Ion Battery Safety?

Part of the FSSA NFPA 855 Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems Series

How do we try to make these as safe as possible? It starts for us with the codes and standards. You have the International Code Council, which is the ICC, that creates the International Fire Code, the International Building Code. We have the National Fire Protection Association, the NFPA. We also have to have standards testing. UL has UL 9540, which is the listing for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). You look at all the codes and the codes will require UL 9540 listing for all batteries. And the test is the 9540 A test. So these have all been updated and worked on after McMicken, after Victoria in Australia, after Moss landing, after all of the fires. We're doing a much better job about getting everyone together in a room and creating better codes.

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NFPA 855 Series: What an AHJ learned from the McMicken Energy Storage Facility Owned by Arizona Public Service Co.

Part of the FSSA NFPA 855 Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems Series

We always try to learn lessons. What worked well, what didn't work well. McMicken showed us that a clean agent type fire protection system alone is not adequate. We need something else. We need sprinklers. If we're going to be in an occupiable space, once again, we know that sprinklers don't control the thermal runaway, so all we're really doing is cooling it. Now, sprinkler water, as well as the water mist system, is really good about keeping vapors down, which is another thing that we're working on here in the valley with one of our battery installations. But sprinklers alone are not going to control the thermal runaway. It's going to do its thing until it's done.

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Register Today for the Next FSSA Webinar on NFPA 855

FSSA Webinar: NFPA 855 - Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems

Tuesday, April 25, 2023
12:00 pm Eastern

As a Deputy Fire Marshal that has seen the impact of ESS fires and incidents as well as a member of the NFPA 855 committee, Brian will share his perspective on how the code was developed, highlight lessons learned from serious ESS incidents, and how the code should be interpreted and applied.

Presenter:

Brian Scholl, Deputy Fire Marshall, Phoenix Fire Department



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Future Availability of Novec™ 1230 (FK-5-1-12)

3M Company recently issued a release stating the company’s intention to exit per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) manufacturing and work to discontinue the use of PFAS across its product portfolio by the end of 2025.  This was a business decision by 3M and will include the manufacturing of its 3M™ Novec™ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid - which is 3M’s trademarked-version of the FK-5-1-12 fire suppression agent.

In the release, 3M states that “PFAS can be safely made and used” and its “products are safe for their intended use.” The company commits to facilitating an orderly transition for customers. The announcement does pledge 3M will fulfill its current contractual obligations.

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The Adoption and Use of NFPA 855 in States and Local Communities

To: State and Local Building Officials, Fire Marshals, and other Local Authorities
From: The Fire Suppression Systems Association

The Fire Suppression Systems Association (FSSA) is a membership organization composed of manufacturers, installers, and professionals engaged in the application of fire suppression systems and other fire extinguishing technologies. The FSSA is very concerned with the severity of fires and explosions occurring in battery energy storage systems (BESS) using new battery technologies. Our members have collectively witnessed severe disruptions due to fires originating in these systems. 

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Being a Member of the FSSA puts You in the Know

September 23, 2021 was a decision day for the EPA who made a final decision on the phase down on HFC’s. Throughout the entire process, our FSSA members were aware of the discussions and provided information to our members.  In fact, not only do we have members who regularly attend EPA related meetings, we have members sitting on or attending over 34 NFPA committees that may affect your business.  With the ability for codes to change every 3-5 years, and our members taking part in the discussions and providing reports, FSSA is well poised to be in the know.

This wealth of information is made available to the FSSA membership by providing access to written reports, technical meetings, webinars, and town hall meetings.

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