KR20220023840A - Automatic early fire extinguishing system for ess - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automatic fire extinguishing system dedicated for an ESS. The automatic fire extinguishing system dedicated for an ESS comprises: an ESS (2) for storing power generated from solar panels; and a plurality of racks (21, 22, 23, 24) each having battery units (30) installed in the ESS, and prevents disasters by spraying chemicals in response to signals from sensors. The automatic fire extinguishing system further comprises: a sub control unit (50) provided in each of the racks to receive and transmit detection signals from a gas detection sensor (40), a temperature sensor (43), and a smoke detection sensor (45) installed on upper portions of the racks (21, 22, 23, 24); a chemical injector (60) including front nozzles (65) disposed on both sides of the front of the battery units (30) of each rack and rear nozzles (66) inserted and disposed inside the battery units (30) on a rear side thereof so that liquid nitrogen is sprayed to extinguish a fire in the battery units (30) of the rack; and a main control unit (70) for determining whether a fire occurs from detection signals from the gas detection sensor (40), the temperature sensor (43), and the smoke detection sensor (45), transmitted from the sub control unit (50). The main control unit (70) is configured to spray liquid nitrogen into a corresponding rack by the chemical injector (60) when it is determined that a fire occurs in the battery units (30), to reduce the battery temperature to below 100℃ to extinguish the fire, thereby quickly and effectively preventing a fire in the ESS or minimize the damage.

Description

ESS exclusive automatic fire extinguishing system {AUTOMATIC EARLY FIRE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM FOR ESS}

The present invention relates to an automatic fire extinguishing system for initial suppression of an ESS (Energy Storage System) fire. In particular, the ESS has a large number of lithium-ion batteries with high energy density built in a dense structure called a rack, so that when a fire occurs, continuous To prevent an oxidative explosion in which stored energy is rapidly released by chemical reaction during thermal runaway, it relates to an improved automatic fire extinguishing system dedicated to ESS that can be extinguished immediately and efficiently.

Recently, solar power generation facilities use solar cells including semiconductor devices that generate photovoltaic power by the photoelectric effect when sunlight is irradiated, and in terms of producing clean energy that does not cause pollution, solar Power generation facilities using light are expanding.

In general, since the amount of electrical energy generated from a unit solar cell is very small, a plurality of solar cells are usually manufactured as a panel (module), and a plurality of solar cells Connect panel groups in parallel to get the required power.

ESS (Energy Storage System) is mainly using lithium-ion batteries built in a dense structure called a rack to store the electricity produced by the photovoltaic facilities and transmit it when there is a temporary power shortage. It is increasingly being used for power outages or peak power reduction in general consumers such as buildings, factories, and homes by configuring it in a small size.

This ESS generates electricity from a plurality of solar cells, and stores electric energy converted from DC power generated by the solar cells into AC power by an inverter in a storage battery. Because the capacity of unit battery units is limited, many of battery units are installed in a rack to store electrical energy, and the voltage is boosted by the AC switchboard and supplied to the power system or consumers.

In the racks of the ESS of such a solar power generation facility, a plurality of battery units are installed in a dense state, so that in the event of a fire, the flame can easily spread to adjacent batteries, and after the ESS is actually ignited, the automatic fire extinguishing system is installed. Although it is possible to prevent the spread of fire by extinguishing it by operating it, it cannot prevent the occurrence of the fire itself.

In addition, once a fire occurs within the ESS module, all the stacked ESS modules are lost and cannot be reused again, so an immediate and effective fire extinguishing device that can minimize the loss of the ESSD was required.

As an example of a device for preventing a fire in a conventional energy storage device, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-2021072 (registration date September 05, 2019) has a fire extinguishing agent supply tank that supplies a fire extinguishing agent through a fire extinguishing agent supply pipe ; a solenoid valve installed in each ESS module, turned on and off according to a control signal from an electronic control panel, and supplying the extinguishing agent supplied from the extinguishing agent supply tank to each ESS module; an injection pipe connected to the solenoid valve and injecting a fire extinguishing agent to the corresponding ESS module; a temperature sensor attached to the side of each battery cell in the ESS module to measure the temperature of the battery cell; Battery monitoring that is installed in each ESS module, supplies power to the temperature sensor, receives temperature information of the temperature sensor and location information of the temperature sensor, transmits it to an electronic control panel, and controls the on/off of the solenoid valve controller (BMC); and receiving the temperature information and location information of the temperature sensor transmitted from the battery monitoring controller, and according to the received temperature information and location information of the temperature sensor, when the temperature value of any temperature sensor rises above a predetermined injection temperature There is disclosed a fire prevention system for an energy storage device comprising a; an electronic control panel that transmits a control signal to open the corresponding solenoid valve located in the ESS module where the corresponding temperature sensor is located.

However, the fire prevention system of the conventional energy storage device, for example, Novec 1230 (FK 5-1-12), FM200, HFC123, other fire extinguishing agents excellent in electrical insulation such as solid aerosol for fire extinguishing As it is used, there is a problem that the energy storage device in the sprayed area cannot be used, resulting in a loss, and it is not possible to effectively prevent the occurrence and spread of fire and is limited only to post-fire suppression.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-2021072 (Registration Date September 05, 2019)

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art, when it is determined that a fire occurs or a fire precursor phenomenon is detected according to a pre-programmed bar including a gas sensor, a temperature sensor, and a smoke sensor, in the corresponding rack It is to provide an improved ESS-only automatic fire extinguishing system that directly injects liquid nitrogen to rapidly cool the temperature and cut off the oxygen supply to prevent and early suppression of fire.

In order to achieve the above object, the ESS-only automatic fire extinguishing device according to an aspect of the present invention is a plurality of solar panels for producing electricity from sunlight, and to store the power generated from the solar panels. In the ESS-only automatic fire extinguishing system, which is provided with an ESS and a plurality of racks installed in the ESS and each equipped with a plurality of battery units, and is configured to spray a chemical in response to a signal from a sensor to prevent disaster,

A sub-controller provided in each of the racks to receive and transmit the detection signals from the gas detection sensor, the temperature sensor and the smoke detection sensor installed on each of the racks;

Liquid nitrogen as a medicine for extinguishing fires in battery units in the racks is placed in front nozzles on both front sides of the battery units of each rack and a rear nozzle inserted into the battery unit from the rear side A medicament injector comprising

Combining the detection signals from the gas detection sensor, the temperature sensor, and the smoke detection sensor transmitted from the sub-controller to determine whether or not a fire has occurred according to a pre-programmed bar, and a main control unit to control the fire extinguishing device including,

The main control unit determines whether or not a fire has occurred in the battery units of each rack according to a pre-programmed bar, and when it is determined that a fire occurs, controls the chemical injector to inject liquid nitrogen into the rack. do.

The drug injection device is a liquid nitrogen (LN ₂ ) generator to spray liquid nitrogen as a fire extinguishing agent, and a liquid nitrogen storage tank and liquid nitrogen from the liquid nitrogen storage tank are supplied through a solenoid valve to spray the batteries of each rack It includes front nozzles and rear nozzles disposed on both sides of the units.

It may be configured to pressurize the liquid nitrogen in the liquid nitrogen storage tank with a liquid nitrogen pressurizing device to spray it at a predetermined pressure set in advance.

Alternatively, to supply helium gas to the liquid nitrogen tank by a compressor to keep the pressure of liquid nitrogen in the liquid nitrogen storage tank constant in order to supply liquid nitrogen as a fire extinguishing agent to the nozzle in the fire extinguishing agent injection device 60 It can also be configured.

According to the present invention, a high temperature phenomenon caused by thermal runaway is quickly and accurately determined by the main control unit as to whether or not a fire has occurred according to a pre-programmed bar from at least two detection signals among the detection signals of the gas sensor, the temperature sensor, and the smoke sensor. By spraying liquid nitrogen through a nozzle from the liquid nitrogen storage tank of the fire extinguishing agent injection device 60 to the generated battery unit, cooling the rapidly rising battery temperature to 100° C. or less to suppress it, resulting in a fire It is possible to prevent secondary loss of units, so it is effective to quickly and effectively prevent ESS fire or minimize damage.

1 schematically shows a solar power generation facility.
Figure 2 is a schematic configuration diagram in which the racks and detection sensors of the ESS of the power generation facility of Figure 1 are installed.
Figure 3 is a schematic front view showing the arrangement of the nozzles of the injection device of Figure 2;
4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a configuration for supplying liquid nitrogen as a fire extinguishing agent to a plurality of racks of the ESS of FIG. 2 to nozzles arranged on the side of the ESS racks.
5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a configuration for supplying liquid nitrogen to the fire extinguishing agent injection device of FIG.
6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a modified example in which a pressurizing means for maintaining the pressure in the liquid nitrogen storage tank for supplying liquid nitrogen of FIG. 5 is provided.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings showing embodiments of the present invention.

In general, as schematically shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a solar power generation facility is installed in a plurality of solar panels 1 and the power generated therefrom is installed in an ESS (energy storage device) 2 schematically shown. A plurality of battery units are charged and supplied to a power system or consumer not shown in the drawings.

As schematically shown in FIG. 2 , the ESS 2 includes a plurality of racks 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 in which battery units 30 are installed on horizontal support units 25 formed to be vertically spaced apart, and the The gas detection sensor 40, the temperature sensor 43 and the smoke detection sensors 45 installed on each of the racks 21, 22, 23, 24, and the gas detection sensor 40, the temperature sensor in the racks (43) and the sub control unit 50 provided in each of the racks 21, 22, 23, 24 to receive and transmit the detection signal from the smoke detection sensor 45, the racks 21, 22, 23, The gas detection sensor 40 and the temperature sensor 43 transmitted from the drug injection device 60 and the sub-controller 50 for injecting the drug for extinguishing the fire in the battery units 30 in 24) And the detection signals from the detection signals from the smoke detection sensor 45 are combined to determine whether a fire has occurred according to a pre-programmed bar, and each according to the pre-programmed in the main control unit 70 for controlling the fire extinguishing device To determine whether a fire occurs in the battery units 30 of the racks 21, 22, 23, and 24 of the It includes a medicament injection device (60).

The gas sensor 40 detects the gas generated by overheating of the battery material before a fire occurs in the battery units 30 installed in the rack, and the temperature sensor 43 is the temperature of the battery unit 30 . , and the smoke detection sensor 45 detects smoke generated by a fire in the battery unit 30, and transmits a detection signal to the sub-controller 50 of the corresponding rack, respectively.

The main control unit 70 combines the detection signals from the gas detection sensor 40, the temperature sensor 43, and the smoke detection sensor 45 transmitted through the sub-controller 50 to pre-program whether or not a fire occurs. It judges according to what happened and controls the fire extinguishing system. Whether or not such a fire occurs is determined when the temperature is higher than the preset temperature and when the gas generated from the lithium ion battery is detected at such a temperature as a state in which a fire is highly likely to occur, and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor and It includes all fires that have actually occurred by detecting smoke by a smoke sensor.

Determination of the occurrence of fire in the battery units 30 installed in the rack, the signal from the detection signals from the sensors of the gas detection sensor 40 and the temperature sensor 43 in the main control unit 70 is Program to determine that there is a high possibility of fire, and to determine that a fire has occurred when a detection signal from the smoke detection sensor 45 together with the gas detection sensor 40 or the temperature sensor 43 is generated It is programmed to judge whether a fire is rekindled only by the temperature detection signal of the temperature sensor in order to prevent malfunction of the fire extinguishing system by the signal from the sensor due to the residual gas and smoke that has occurred in the case of a recurrent fire.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the fire extinguishing agent injection device 60 includes a liquid nitrogen (LN ₂ ) generator 61, a liquid nitrogen storage tank 62, and liquid nitrogen pressurization to spray liquid nitrogen as a fire extinguishing agent. Arranged on both sides of the battery units 30 of each rack 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 to inject liquid nitrogen pressurized by the device 63 and the liquid nitrogen pressurization device and supplied through the solenoid valve 64 . It includes the front nozzles 65 and the rear nozzles not shown in the drawings provided on the rear side in the same way as the front nozzles. Since the pressure of liquid nitrogen itself in the liquid nitrogen tank 62 is 0.2 MPa, it is preferable to pressurize it with the pressurizing device 63 to spray liquid nitrogen at 1.0 MPa.

The front nozzles 65 are disposed on both sides of the front side of each battery unit 30 by the branch pipe 63, respectively, and the rear nozzle is inserted and disposed inside the battery unit 30 from the rear side, so that in the battery unit It is possible to more reliably suppress the occurrence of a fire in a state where the ignition or ignition probability of the fire is high. It will be readily understood that the nozzles may be disposed otherwise.

In addition, since liquid nitrogen has an evaporation loss of 6.4% per day, it is always replenished by the liquid nitrogen generator 61. It is supplied to the liquid nitrogen storage tank 62 through the pressure regulator 66 and the solenoid valve 67.

6 shows a modified configuration for supplying liquid nitrogen as a fire extinguishing agent to a nozzle in the extinguishing agent injection device 60 in the present invention, and in the liquid nitrogen storage tank 62 without employing the pressurization device 63 It may be additionally configured to the liquid nitrogen storage tank 62 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 to supply the helium gas to the liquid nitrogen tank 62 by the compressor 80 to maintain a constant pressure of liquid nitrogen of Reference numeral 68, which is not described, denotes a safety valve, and reference numeral 69 denotes a low-temperature solenoid valve.

In the case of a battery fire in the ESS (2) in which a plurality of battery units 30 are installed in a plurality of racks (21, 22, 23, 24), gas is generated at a temperature of 120 ° C. An instantaneous thermal runaway phenomenon occurs, resulting in a high temperature of 1300° C. or higher. At this time, according to the present invention, liquid nitrogen is sprayed from the liquid nitrogen storage tank of the extinguishing agent injection device 60 through a nozzle to rapidly increase the temperature of the battery. By cooling the temperature to 100°C or less and suppressing it, secondary loss of many adjacent battery units due to a fire can be prevented, thereby quickly and effectively preventing or minimizing damage to an ESS fire.

The present invention can be used to monitor and prevent a fire in an ESS that stores electricity generated from a plurality of solar panels.

1: Solar panel 2: ESS
21, 22, 23, 24: rack 25: horizontal support
30: battery unit 40: gas detection sensor
43: temperature sensor 45: smoke detection sensor
50: sub control unit 60: drug injection device
61: liquid nitrogen generator 62: storage tank
65: front nozzle 70: main control unit
80: compressor

Claims (4)

A plurality of solar panels (1) for producing electricity from sunlight, an ESS (2) to store power generated from the solar panels, and a plurality of battery units (30) installed in the ESS ) In the automatic fire extinguishing system dedicated to ESS provided with a plurality of racks (21, 22, 23, 24) each having
Each of the racks 21, 22, 23, 24 so as to receive and transmit the detection signals from the gas detection sensor 40, the temperature sensor 43 and the smoke detection sensor 45 installed on the top of each of the racks (21, 22, 23, 24) provided in the sub-controller 50,
Liquid nitrogen as a medicine for extinguishing fires in the battery units 30 in the racks 21, 22, 23, and 24 of the battery units 30 of the racks 21, 22, 23, 24 A drug injection device 60 including front nozzles 65 disposed on both sides of the front and rear nozzles disposed inside the battery unit 30 from the back side, and
By combining the detection signals from the gas detection sensor 40, the temperature sensor 43, and the detection signals from the smoke detection sensor 45 transmitted from the sub-controller 50, whether or not a fire has occurred is programmed in advance. and a main control unit 70 for judging according to and controlling the fire extinguishing device,
The main control unit 70 determines whether a fire occurs in the battery units 30 of each of the racks 21, 22, 23, 24 according to a pre-programmed bar, and when it is determined that a fire occurs, the chemical injector 60 ) to control and spray liquid nitrogen into the racks (21, 22, 23, 24).
The method of claim 1,
The chemical injection device 60 is a liquid nitrogen (LN ₂ ) generator 61, liquid nitrogen storage tank 62, and liquid nitrogen from the liquid nitrogen storage tank to spray liquid nitrogen as a fire extinguishing agent is a solenoid valve ( ESS comprising front nozzles 65 and rear nozzles 66 disposed on both sides of the battery units 30 of each rack 21, 22, 23, 24 so as to be supplied and sprayed through 64). Dedicated automatic fire extinguishing system.
3. The method of claim 2,
ESS-only automatic fire extinguishing system, characterized in that the liquid nitrogen in the liquid nitrogen storage tank (62) is pressurized with a liquid nitrogen pressurizing device (63) to be sprayed at a predetermined pressure.
3. The method of claim 2,
In order to supply liquid nitrogen as an extinguishing agent to the nozzle in the fire extinguishing agent injection device 60, the helium gas is injected into the liquid nitrogen tank ( 62), an automatic fire extinguishing system dedicated to ESS, characterized in that it is supplied.

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