What Certifies BESS Fire Safety? (Not NFPA 855)

You may have heard that NFPA 855 is the gold standard for battery storage system (BESS) fire safety. But it's not.

Many don't realize that NFPA 855, while providing essential guidelines for BESS safety, is just that - a set of guidelines, not a certification or standard.

So when we’re designing and installing BESS, the actual tests we focus on are:

• UL 9540, a system-level certification that analyzes energy storage and the inverter together

• UL 9540A, for individual cells and modules

Relatively few manufacturers provide entire large-scale BESS; to provide the best-fit BESS solution for our clients' needs, we often combine individual components from multiple manufacturers.

So even if the components are individually listed as UL 9540A certified, the system itself must usually be tested onsite once the components are assembled. We conduct these full-system tests rigorously to verify that the entire BESS aligns with the highest fire safety standards.

It’s all part of ensuring your BESS operates safely, accurately, and reliably for its entire lifespan.