Battery storage fire and explosion at Jecheon ESS Plant, South Korea
Dec 2018Published 10 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea
- What
- Fire and explosion at 9.3 MWh indoor NMC battery system
- Injuries
- None reported
- Cause
- Not reported
- Outcome
- One of series of ESS fires prompting shutdown recommendations
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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): LG Chem
What happened
On 17 December 2018, a fire broke out at a battery energy storage system (ESS) installation in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. The system, approximately one year old, used nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion cells manufactured by LG Chem in an indoor architecture for demand charge management, with a capacity of 9.3 MWh. An explosion occurred during the incident. This was one of a series of ESS fires reported across South Korea in late 2018, prompting the national government to recommend that all ESS sites not yet subject to detailed safety inspection be shut down until such inspections were completed. No injuries or fatalities were reported in connection with this specific fire.
Contributing factors
Not reported in the source. The incident occurred amid a broader pattern of unexplained ESS fires across South Korea in 2018.
Lessons learned
- Indoor NMC battery systems can produce explosion risk, so operators should fit early gas detection and automatic isolation.
- A series of similar fires at ESS sites requires fleet wide checks rather than isolated responses.
- Sites without recent detailed safety checks should be shut down promptly after any incident in the fleet.
More lessons on detection and monitoring, electrical protection and isolation, investigation and fleet-wide checks, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Exact cause of the fire
- Operator of the site
- Cost of damage and downtime
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Other entries that name Jecheon
Published 2026-09-10. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
