QUESTIONS FOR STATERA ENERGY REGARDING THEIR BESS PROPOSALS

These were sent to Statera asking for a reponese within 2 weeks. They have ackowledged reciept and their response will be posted here when available.

General

1. Is Statera the prime contractor for the project to construct and commission a BESS?

2. If so, who are the subcontractors?

3. What is the estimated cost of the project? Who is paying it?

4. What do the local community get out of this project?

5. Please give contact names for the councils who agreed the decisions for other smaller BESS

facilities that are listed on Statera’s website. We would like to contact them and seek their

post project views.

6. Looking at Statera’s background, a 400MW facility is many times larger than the company’s

previous experience. How can you demonstrate that this major step change can be managed

smoothly?

7. In answer to a previous question, Statera has said that the BESS will be composed of 480

(now 600) units each housed in a shipping container, and weighing about 42 tonnes each.

Who is building these containers?

What are the dimensions of a container? Would Statera supply a detailed diagram?

How many cells are there in each container and how are they arranged?

8. How do you envisage these large containers along the narrow roads at Chickerell? How will

Statera ensure that the general populace continue without hindrance to go about their daily

lives and children going to school during these daily transportation of the containers.

9. Will Statera pay for damage to the road caused by the movement of such heavy articulated

vehicles over roads not designed for such?

10. Where will these containers come from? Are they an import from the Far East or USA for

example? If they are overseas, would they enter the UK via Portland Port for example?

11. How many days will it take to transport the 600 containers to the proposed site?

12. How much public liability insurance will Statera Hold and what are limitations in definition of

insurable hazard?

13. Will Statera insure against hazards such battery fire and thermal runaway and the

consequences to life and neighbouring properties? Who underwrites the insurance on other

BESS projects in this country?

14. Please set out the steps to be taken in the construction of the facility, beginning with say

erecting fences to final commissioning of the system.

15. Please produce a Gantt chart of these activities.

BESS Design and Techology

16. The proposed BESS is described as 400MW with a proposed design capacity of 2000 MWh.

When will this design be finalised?

17. In response to an earlier question, Statera advised that the number of cells in the proposed

BESS could be estimated by scaling up the number of cells in the 100MW/100MWh BESS

that had earlier been commissioned. This results in an estimate of 2.496 Million cells. Do you

agree?

18. The technology proposed is LFP cells. What are the characteristics of the cells that make up

the BESS, i.e. size, capacity, internal impedance, voltage?

19. Are these cells evenly distributed between the 600 containers that are proposed?

20. With regular battery fires occurring with the currently used LNC or LMC technology, the

World is turning to LFP as a safer solution, where are these cells to be procured?

21. Can these cells be adequately sourced in time to meet your proposed programme?

22. What protocols does your Quality Assurance System include for screening and matching cells

to be used in the BESS?

23. What studies have been carried out in regard to the ageing of LFP cells? Please give

references.

24. As the cells age, will there be a regular survey of the electrochemical characteristics of cells

and their replacement if necessary?

25. What is your view on the use of ‘second life’ lithium ion cells in BESS?

26. In the design of the BESS, what quality arrangements are there for ensuring

 protection against the occurrence of high impedance and low impedance short

circuits during the operation of the BESS

 protection against arcing and static electricity

 protection against all environmental hazards

 protection against mechanical hazards such as shock and vibration

27. Will Statera be undertaking a high fidelity thermal analysis of the environment within

containers when loaded under various charging conditions?

28. In particular, how will the thermal gradient of the temperature in any container be

maintained to avoid deviations developing in the internal resistance of the cells, with all the

consequent implications on safety.

29. Describe a typical charge – discharge cycle.

30. How many charge – discharge cycles are expected with the BESS per year?

31. If a cell or group of cells develop behaviour that is off nominal or thermal distress, under

what circumstances would first responders and fire fighters be alerted. How long would it

take between the first detection of a possible problem and the decision to call in first

responders and fire fighters?

32. What actually can be done to contain the spectre of thermal runaway? What fire

extinguishing agents could be employed? Have these methods actually been tested and

proven? If so, please give references.

33. What modelling and simulation is or has been carried out to assess the risk of thermal

runaway. How sensitive are the results of the risk analysis to assumptions in the model.

Battery Management System

34. Who has developed the BMS and its software?

35. Please describe the Battery Management System (BMS), how many sensors are used in

terms of voltage, current and temperature.

36. Will each of the 600 containers have their separate BMS?

37. Noting that the site will be unmanned relying upon BMS and fire sensors to ensure

operational safety, how can you be sure that in the event of malfunction of computer

systems and control devices, the system can be shut down immediately – i.e that the system

is intrinsically fail-safe?

38. If the system is claimed to be fail safe, please can you please provide a copy of independent

tests of such testing and advise upon the frequency with which such failures typically occur

on a given single ‘shipping container’.

39. Is it possible to electronically isolate each individual cell if the temperature of that cell

moves beyond the accepted boundaries?

40. How is the software tested to cover all eventualities

41. Since the whole system is run via a computer operated BMS and TMS, how can the system

be protected against malicious intent e.g. hacking?

Thermal Management System

42. How is the Thermal Management of the System organised? Please describe in detail.

43. During a charge or discharge period how much heat needs to be removed from each of the

containers to protect the system?

44. We assume that some sort of closed cycle air conditioning (AC) system is to be used. Is that

correct?

45. If a closed cycle AC is used, what system of heat exchange is to be used to return the air into

the container at the correct temperature?

46. Will the system use water cooling in the heat exchanger? If so, how much water is expected

to be used per year?

47. If a water based heat exchange is not to be used, what alternative system is used?

48. People living close to other BESS installations complain of the noise generated by the

auxiliary systems. Can this be quantified in some way for the much larger BESS proposed

here?

Safety Case

49. Please demonstrate that a safety case has been drawn up and identifies all conceivable

modes of failure of the system and the consequences of failure. In some cases there would

be a chain of causality which if unchecked could lead to thermal runaway.

50. How therefore can you demonstrate that the chance of failure is As Low as Reasonably

Practicable?