Battery Energy Storage System and Solar PV
Risktec provides expert independent technical safety and environmental consultancy services to the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and Solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) industries. Our consultants are actively engaged, and leading the industry, in meeting key health and safety and environmental challenges, through collaboration with a range of clients throughout the supply chain, including Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), owner/operators and industry bodies. Our service offering has been developed through successful delivery of projects from the planning application and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) stages, through to battery recycling, hazard analysis and safety and environmental assurance support, as well as producing BESS and Solar PV industry guidance and bespoke procedures.
Services we provide
- Support for BESS and Solar PV owner / operators
- Setting out programmes of safety and environmental assurance works in Solar PV and Battery Safety and Environmental Management Plans and procedures, to ensure the resulting facilities are safe, and remain compliant with environmental legislation and best practice
- Providing independent safety and environmental support to BESS and Solar PV owner / operators in stakeholder meetings, including planning and emergency response
- Supporting planning applications under the Town and Country Planning Act and Development Consent Orders
- Support for BESS and Solar PV Manufacturers (OEM)
- Implementing a safety and environment-led approach for BESS and / or Solar PV location on complex sites
- Hazard identification and risk assessment
- Bowtie analysis of Major Accident Hazards (MAHs) and Major Accidents To The Environment (MATTE)
- Functional safety analysis
- Authoring of industry guidance
Services we provide
- Guidance on co-locating BESS and Solar PV with other power generation plant
- Guidance of recycling of end of life batteries
- Environmental and ecological management planning and compliance
- Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) design, delivery, and long-term habitat management
- Contractor documentation review and comment
- Technical review of designs and documentation, e.g. drainage, waste, landscaping, material management
- Environmental and Ecological Clerk of Works (EnvCoW & ECoW) services
- Pre-Construction and Construction-phase environmental monitoring, auditing, surveys, reporting and risk management.
- Author and review of Planning and post-Consent phase documentation
- Provision of Environmental Management and Advisory support
- Environmental / Ecological Clerk of Works management
- Contractor and Developer environmental compliance monitoring and assurance
Example project experience
- Functional safety analysis of a scalable BESS (multiple MWh) including SIL allocation
- Hazard identification for a small scale BESS product, developing a Hazard Record and Safety Requirements for the product
- Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Bowtie analysis of MAHs for a BESS co-located with a wind farm
- Development of Battery Safety Management Plans to support multiple BESS planning applications
- Safety support through the planning process under the Town and Country Planning Act and Development Consent Orders
- Technical guidance for BESS location on a complex site including wind turbine blade throw and chemical pipeline release consequence modelling
- Authoring industry guidance relating to co-location of BESS and battery recycling
- Environmental Management support for BESS and Solar PV (Planning, pre-construction and Construction phases)
- Drafting of Outline Environmental Management Plans
Safety and environmental assurance
The key purpose of a safety or environmental assurance process is to deliver confidence in system safety and environmental performance/compliance, throughout the systems’ lifecycle, from concept development, design, construction and operation, through to end of life and decommissioning. Risktec’s tailored safety and environmental assurance approach ensures that effort and resources are applied to the right areas at the right times.
Depending on the system under consideration, Risktec will use HAZID / ENVID or HAZOP methodologies to identify hazards, from which a project hazard record will be built, and safety and environmental requirements can be identified. MAHs and/or MATTEs can be further assessed, using the Bowtie methodology.
Risktec can complete site specific risk assessments to help position a BESS and / or Solar PV arrays in a complex site. For example, considering wind turbine, 3rd party activities, pipelines etc, or sensitive environmental receptors, that may impact BESS and / or Solar PV construction or operations.
Where quantified risk modelling is required, Risktec can call upon decades of experience in the oil and gas industry to carry out numerical analysis to quantify risk, for example, explosion / blast modelling, which may also illustrate risks of harm to environmental receptors.
To conclude the safety and environmental assurance process, Risktec can produce a Safety or Environmental Justification for the proposed BESS and / or Solar PV project, detailing the process that has been followed, and demonstrating that all identified hazards are managed so that the risk is as low as reasonably practicable. The Safety and / or Environmental Justification can be used to discharge planning conditions, in conjunction with a Construction Environmental Management Plan (supported by relevant procedures), and to demonstrate BESS safety and environmental mitigation measures to all relevant stakeholders.
Functional safety
Risktec has extensive experience in delivering functional safety services to a broad range of clients in a wide range of industrial sectors and Functional Safety Standards. Our consultants are familiar with a variety of functional safety studies, tools and techniques, including SIL allocation and assurance in accordance with IEC 61508, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Event Tree Analysis (ETA).
Human Factors
Risktec are a Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (HF) Registered Consultancy with specialists who are experienced in providing a wide range of services to organisations within the clean energy industry. We offer pragmatic solutions to help customers ensure a fit-for-purpose design, safe and sufficient operations, and safety assurance and regulatory compliance. Example HF activities include:
- HF Scoping Exercise
- Production of HF Integration Plan (HFIP)
- HF and ergonomics design guidance review
- Safety Critical Task Analysis
- HF input to module Operability Review
- HF Input to Safety Case development
- Human Reliability Assessment
- Training Needs Analysis
- Procedure design and review
Wider clean energy industry experience
Risktec has extensive experience across the energy industry including conventional energy, wind (Offshore Wind Farms, cable routes and substations) and hydrogen. This wide experience enables Risktec to effectively support projects where BESS and Solar PV may interact with existing energy generation and distribution assets, and to bring wider energy and civil engineering industry best practice to the BESS and Solar PV sector.