The structure, they soon discovered, housed a 2-megawatt energy storage system (ESS) owned by local utility Arizona Public Service; hundreds of the system's lithium-ion battery cells had experienced a catastrophic failure and were in a dangerous state known as thermal runaway. . ium-ion battery energy storage station are carried out. In the experiment, the LiFePO 4 battery module of 8. With battery installations rapidly accelerating worldwide, have we learned enough to prevent the next Surprise? Late on April 19, 2019, Bobby Ruiz, the. . How did the energy storage power station explode? 1. Here's how it works: Mechanical abuse: Crush a battery in a forklift accident? That's like giving it a death hug [1] [8]. Electrical abuse: Overcharging these babies is. . But here's the kicker – 78% of power grid failures during 2023's hurricane season occurred in automated systems without manual backup. This raises a crucial question: Are we becoming too dependent on fragile digital solutions for mission-critical infrastructure? Well.