C10 - BESS Commissioning

The case for battery energy storage system (BESS) container commissioning.
Laboratory and field testing of building and industrial exterior envelopes has taught the construction industry how to keep the inside in and the outside out for efficiency, contaminate control, indoor air quality and fire control. The problem with buildings is two-fold, the industry has materials, products and designs that keep the inside in and outside out; the trouble is that when these materials, products and designs come together in the field, they rarely perform collectively as designed individually. Secondly, these products are installed by field technicians not the design engineers, the result has historically resulted in leaky buildings which are the basis for 75% of all construction litigation cases. The solution in the commercial building sector has been to commission buildings prior to turn-over just as a ship is commissioned before setting off to sea. This same commissioning should become the standard practice in the BESS industry.
BESS containers are made of rugged steel, truly a durable container, but as with traditional buildings, keeping the inside in and the outside out must be addressed. Batteries are rugged but are sensitive to proper charging and ambient temperatures; steel containers are 50x more thermally conductive than a traditional building. 68° is the prime temperature that must be maintained economically in any container designed to store energy and a simple observation of the numerous electrical components and connections within a BESS container would support the idea that keeping moisture and dust particle out would be a good idea. If the lifespan of the batteries and the associated components within a BESS container determines the overall return on investment of that container, commissioning BESS containers for air leakage prior to project turn-over should become an industry norm; the benefits exponentially exceed the cost.