East Manatee deputy fire marshal receives lithium-ion battery training
Florida Power & Light presents a clinic for the Florida Fire Marshals and Inspectors Association.
Batteries power more than phones and electric bikes. Sometimes — typically early in the morning and again at sunset — batteries power the electrical grid.
Florida Power & Light (FPL) uses battery systems to pull excess energy from the grid during low demand times and store it for use during peak hours. The technology helps the grid operate more efficiently and reliably.
Operating giant lithium-ion batteries also comes with fire risks, so FPL launched a specialized training course with the Florida Fire Marshals and Inspectors Association.
“Safety is our No. 1 priority,” FPL Universal Solar Development Vice President Brandon Stankiewicz said in a press release last week. “We’re proud to work alongside FFMIA and Florida’s first responders to provide specialized training that helps firefighters understand cutting edge technologies and prepare to support the energy grid of the future.”
FPL operates nearly 1,600 megawatts of utility-scale battery energy storage systems, which is enough to power over 1 million homes for four hours. The company plans to add nearly 900 MW more by the end of the year.
Kyle Brooks, deputy fire marshal for East Manatee Fire Rescue, attended one of FPL's battery storage training sessions at Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue. He said the biggest takeaway from the training was that everything inside the battery pod is replaceable, but the life of a firefighter is not.
“FPL is constantly getting feedback from the pods,” Brooks said. “They know the temperatures of different battery modules. They know if there’s any flammable or hazardous gases in there. They know if the air conditioning is working or not working. Everything is monitored and reported to a remote station to where you don’t need to have anybody inside there, or even close, and (FPL) can tell you what’s going on inside the pods.”
Brooks noted that the battery storage systems were designed to “fail safely.” And if they don’t fail safely and something combusts, the emergency will be contained to that equipment.
If East Manatee Fire Rescue was called out to the scene of a smoking battery, Brooks said the No. 1 concern is life safety. If FPL workers and the public are safe, firefighters wouldn’t apply water to the equipment unless instructed to do so by FPL. The crew would only mitigate hazards if, for example, the malfunction caused a nearby brush fire.
The worst-case scenario with one of these storage systems is that it could catastrophically fail with someone nearby, but with gates and barbed-wire fencing protecting the remotely monitored equipment, Brooks said it’s an unlikely scenario.
A battery used to charge a teenager’s electric scooter in a garage worries Brooks more than an entire FPL battery storage system. The scooter is a “life risk;” the battery is “an unattended pod.”
Manatee breaks a record
When the Manatee Energy Storage Center broke ground in 2021, FPL said in a press release that it was “expected to shatter industry records as the world’s largest integrated solar-powered battery system, capable of powering Disney World for approximately seven hours.”
A facility in the Philippines is on track to take the “world’s largest” title next year with a 4,500 MWh battery energy storage system. A press release by Meralco PowerGen Corporation said the facility is projected to supply clean energy to approximately 2.4 million households while avoiding an estimated 4.3 million tons of carbon emissions annually, which is the equivalent to taking more than 3 million gas-powered vehicles off the road.
The Philippines' mega-project doesn’t take away from how large a facility was built in Manatee County. The storage center sits on 40 acres in Parrish and distributes 900 MWh of electricity, or enough power to keep 329,000 homes powered for two hours.
The site contains 132 storage containers. Each container holds roughly 400 battery modules and weighs about 38 tons. Each battery module is the equivalent of approximately 2,000 iPhone batteries.
Over the course of its 40-year projected lifespan, the plant is anticipated to save customers more than $100 million because it offsets the need to run other power plants and pay for fuel when the demand spikes. Manatee Energy Storage Center is powered by the adjacent Manatee Solar Energy Center, also operated by FPL. The 751-acre solar center features 341,880 photovoltaic solar panels and powers about 15,000 homes annually.
