NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 35

RESEARCH POWERED

FREMONT (CA) FIRE DEPARTMENT

EFFECTIVELY ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM OF STRANDED ENERGY STARTS
WITH LEARNING MORE ABOUT IT. ACTUALLY, A LOT MORE.

MORE RESEARCH IS BEING CONDUCTED ON issues related
to stranded energy, including three major projects nearing
completion.
Sometime this spring or summer, the US National Transportation Safety Board says it will issue a series of recommendations
related to emergency response to EV crashes, "the first major
report addressing the issue," according to NTSB spokesman
Christopher O'Neil. The report is based on multiple comprehensive investigations NTSB has conducted into EV battery fires
and the problems encountered by responders. O'Neil and the
investigators working on the project declined to comment on
the project or its potential findings, saying only that "our investigators generally do not discuss their analysis or findings until
reports are completed."
The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) is also nearing completion of a wide-ranging effort to better define the
scope of the stranded energy problem so that it can outline a
roadmap for future research projects intended to develop tools
and tactics for responders. Victoria Hutchison, an FPRF research
project manager who is leading the effort, said that so few
studies currently exist on stranded energy that she abandoned
the idea of a literature review and is instead gathering information through interviews with researchers, battery disposal
companies, repair-shop owners, battery manufacturers, first
responders, and others.
"We're just trying to get a variety of perspectives to identify
the scope of this problem, where and when battery reignitions
p Stranded energy research includes methods for fighting EV fires,
which have proven challenging for responders. Among the tactics
that have been found useful is raising vehicles to access the underside of the battery with water, as shown in the photo above, taken
at the site of an EV crash in Fremont, California. The Fire Protection
Research Foundation is among the groups looking at these issues.

have occurred, and some of the strategies and approaches
people are taking to deal with stranded energy," she said. "So
far, I'm finding that almost everyone's approach is based on a
best practice they heard from someone else. Others are just
using their best guesses at this point."
The Foundation's stranded energy paper should be published
sometime this January, Hutchison said. It will be available to
read online at nfpa.org/foundation.
In addition, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), a
vehicle standards organization comprised of automakers, auto
suppliers, government officials, and technical experts, is working on a stranded energy technical information report, which it
hopes to release this year.
Several years ago, SAE formed a stranded energy committee
that would create a design standard for automakers intended
to reduce the problems associated with stranded energy in
vehicles. "We worked for a while, but we couldn't form any
consensus in the group that would allow a standard to be
developed," said Don Karner, chair of the SAE's committee on
stranded energy. "We decided that the best thing to do at that
point would be to step back and issue a technical information
report that defines what the issues are. As much as anything,
this report is a bit of a scope document for what the standard
ultimately needs to address."
Like the FPRF project, the SAE report will detail concerns that
stakeholder groups-fire protection professionals, first responders, auto repair facilities, tow truck operators, and others-have
with stranded energy. The report will likely lead to renewed
efforts by SAE to create a design standard, Karner said. The goal
of the document would be "to achieve a minimum performance
level in batteries that addresses the issues with stranded energy
found in the report," Karner added. "In an ideal world, that would
then be complemented by folks like NFPA, who would come out
with recommended practices for responders in the field. -J.R.

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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NFPA Journal - January/February 2020

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