Ministry of Industry to Accelerate Development of Fire-Resistant Non-Lithium ESS

On the morning of the 29th, police officers are moving the lithium-ion batteries for the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that caught fire at the National Information Resources Service in Yuseong District, Daejeon. Earlier, on the 26th, a lithium-ion battery fire occurred at the National Information Resources Service, which houses the government’s computer systems, causing a large-scale outage of government IT services. September 29, 2025. Photo by Yonhap News.

Amid growing concerns over the safety of energy storage systems (ESS·UPS) following the fire at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on September 30 that Second Vice Minister Lee Ho-hyun visited the LG CNS Sangam IT Center to inspect the current state of UPS facility safety management. Representatives from related organizations, including Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Power Exchange, and Korea Electrical Safety Corporation, also participated in the inspection.

During the meeting, attendees emphasized that, as the central contract market for battery energy storage systems (BESS) is being established and the deployment of energy storage systems is expanding to stabilize the power grid and address the variability of renewable energy, the domestic battery industry must strengthen its capacity for safe battery production. In particular, they stressed the need to establish mass production systems for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which have a lower risk of fire.

Korea Electric Power Corporation stated that ESS units installed at substations for grid stabilization are being designed with fire risk in mind from the initial design stage. Korea Power Exchange noted that, when announcing bids for the ESS central contract market, it requires compliance with fire safety standards for electrical storage facilities (NFPC 607) and facility standards under the Korea Electrical Code (KEC), and factors fire and equipment safety into non-price evaluations.

Furthermore, participants agreed that, to enter the global ESS market, it is essential to equip battery safety technologies such as battery management systems (BMS) that monitor and manage voltage, current, and temperature in real time, as well as immersion cooling technology, water-cooling devices, and fire suppression systems.

It was also discussed that, in government-commissioned energy storage system projects, efforts should be made to expand the development of long-duration energy storage systems with minimal fire risk, such as pumped storage and thermal storage, in addition to battery-based energy storage systems. At the same time, the need to accelerate the development of next-generation long-duration energy storage technologies using non-lithium batteries (such as flow batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries) was highlighted, as part of a public-private "Long-Duration Energy Storage Technology Development Roadmap."

Second Vice Minister Lee Ho-hyun stated, "We must be alert to the risk that this battery fire could once again shrink the energy storage system industry, which is essential for the efficient use of renewable energy," adding, "Only by prioritizing safety as much as the speed of renewable energy deployment can we restore public trust and achieve sustainable growth."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.