No recovery for sunken ‘EV battery fire’ ship

A vessel carrying 4,000 vehicles that sank in the Atlantic last year after a suspected EV battery fire will likely never be recovered and the cause of the disaster will remain a mystery, the ship’s owner told Energy Storage Journal on March 30.

EVs were among the vehicles on board the Felicity Ace car carrier, which caught fire in February 2022 southwest of the Azores while sailing from Germany to the US.

A spokesperson for MOL Shipmanagement Singapore, whose Car Carriers subsidiary owned the vessel, said the depth of the sea where the Felicity Ace sank while being towed in a failed rescue attempt is an estimated 3,000 metres, making a potential salvage operation “quite difficult”.

The spokesperson declined to comment when asked if MOL had received claims for compensation relating to the potential environmental hazard and loss of the vehicles on board — worth an estimated $400 million-$500 million, according to the Safety & Shipping Review 2022 , published by corporate insurance carrier Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.

AGCS said that after more than 70 reported fires on container ships alone in the past five years, a major rethink of vessel designs, fire detection and fire-fighting capabilities may also be required.

The MOL spokesperson said the company continues to transport EVs, taking necessary safety measures, but declined to say whether vehicle cargo handling rules had been reviewed or changed in the wake of the Felicity Ace incident.

Energy Storage Journal , revealed in March 2022 that China had called on the International Maritime Organization to con- sider a shake-up of maritime safety rules for EVs being shipped by sea, amid a rising tide of fires involving lithium ion batteries.

An IMO spokesperson said that proposals relating to fire protection and the tackling of fires involving transport of EV/ new energy vehicles are expected to be discussed by the organization’s subcommittee on ship systems and equipment during the next year.

SMC, Fluence launch 1,000MW BESS park in Philippines

SMC Global Power Holdings inaugurated a 1,000MW/1,000MWh fleet of battery energy storage systems in the Philippines on April 4 — 570MW of which was supplied by Fluence Energy.

Fluence said the BESS portfolio, which is spread across 32 sites, is the largest in southeast Asia and provides advanced grid stability as increasing amounts of intermittent renewable energy sources are added to the grid.

SMC is one of the biggest power suppliers in the Philippines and US-based Fluence’s biggest customer.

Fluence said the BESS projects provide critical grid stability services throughout the National

Transmission Network in the Philippines including frequency response, reserve power, and voltage regulation.

“The deployment of these energy storage systems marks a significant milestone in the clean energy transition journey of the Philippines towards a cleaner, more resilient, and flexible grid,” Fluence said.