Fire damages battery energy storage system at KEPCO Jeju facility

At around 4:55am on 14 September 2018, a fire broke out in the basement of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) Jeju headquarters, located in Yeondong, Jeju City, South Korea. The basement housed an energy storage system (ESS) used for solar power integration. KEPCO staff extinguished the fire immediately after it was discovered. No injuries were reported. The ESS equipment installed in the basement was damaged in the incident. Fire authorities attended the scene and indicated that the fire appeared to have originated in equipment that converts solar-generated power into electricity, though the exact cause of the fire remained under investigation at the time of reporting.

Fire authorities suspected the fire originated in ESS equipment that converts solar-generated power into electricity, but the precise cause was still under investigation and not confirmed in the source.

1. Indoor ESS installations co-located with power conversion equipment require robust fire detection and suppression systems given the potential for rapid escalation in enclosed basement spaces.
2. Rapid response by on-site staff can limit fire spread and prevent injuries even before external fire services arrive.
3. Root cause investigations into ESS fires should specifically examine power conversion system components, as these have been implicated in multiple similar incidents.

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