A fire broke out at a solar energy storage system (ESS) facility where LG Energy Solution's battery was used. Suspicions are growing over the quality stability of the company's products as a series of fires broke out in batteries delivered by LG Energy Solutions.
On April 6, a fire broke out at an ESS facility in Hongseong-gun, Chungcheongnam-do. There were no casualties, but one ESS building and 140 internal batteries were burned down and property damage amounted to about 500 million won.
According to the Fire Department, the battery used in the facility was found to be an ESS device in a solar facility installed by LG Energy Solution in 2018. The ignition point is believed to have originated inside the ESS facility.
A LG Energy Solution official said, "ESS at the scene of the fire is our product," but added, "It has not yet been confirmed as the cause of the fire." Police and fire authorities will conduct a joint inspection to reveal the exact circumstances.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy established a joint public-private ESS fire cause investigation committee in 2019 and found that some cells have manufacturing defects such as poor cutting, plate folding, and poor coating of materials.
Previously, there was a history of fires in ESS that applied LG Energy Solution batteries in 2018 and 2019.
In response, LG Energy Solution said, "The cause of the fire may not be just a battery problem, but a management and operation problem. ESS has many components, and it can be a problem for other components such as inverters and converters in addition to batteries."
In addition, LG Energy Solution launched a voluntary recall of ESS batteries in the U.S. in December last year. At that time, LG Energy Solution's U.S. subsidiary decided to replace the ESS battery "RESU" sold from 2017 to March 2019.
The recall was decided after five fire accidents were reported in home ESS equipped with the battery.
Recently, a fire broke out in Kona Electric, which applied LG batteries, and Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution decided to pay 3 to 7 for the recall, which amounted to 1 trillion won ($0.9 billion).
Due to a series of fires, Hyundai Motor has decided to recall a total of 26,699 vehicles, including Kona EV (25,083 units), Ioniq electric vehicles (1,314 units), and Elec City (302 units), which Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution have decided to share the cost.
According to an investigation by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the high-voltage battery initially produced at LG Energy Solution's Nanjing plant in China is likely to cause a fire due to internal short circuits caused by poor cell manufacturing.
