E3/DC will replace 77 LG battery modules after fire in Germany – SPE

Last week, a fire broke out in the basement of a home in Werne, North Rhine-Westphalia, involving an E3/DC residential battery with an LG Energy Solution module.

The local volunteer fire department, responding to a suspected fire, found the smoke-filled house empty. The team said they struggled to extinguish the 6 kWh battery fire.

This was announced by a spokesperson for the fire brigade pv magazine that it was an S10 home exchange from the German supplier E3/DC.

“The team attempted to extinguish the attached 6 kWh battery, which was difficult as flames flared repeatedly behind the sheet metal cladding,” the volunteer fire department said.

E3/DC also confirmed that the fire involved an S10E 6.5 home exchange installed in 2019. The company said it is assisting LG Energy Solution with investigations and plans to replace battery modules from the same production batch as a precautionary measure, affecting 77 customers.

Firefighters shut off power at the sub-distribution box and used gel extinguishers to cool the battery, which repeatedly reignited.

After consulting with the system installer, the crew manually disassembled the battery, immersed it in a 600-liter container and continued cooling.

The local utility company RWE has shut off the main power to the house due to damage. The operation involved 38 volunteers over a four-hour period.

Despite sporadic fires in PV storage systems, their occurrence remains rare considering the 1.5 million installations in Germany.