Americase International의 수석 컨설턴트 마이크 페이글은 202년 1월 위험물 전문 지식을 기여했다.

Americase International announced that Mike Pagel, Principal Consultant with its HazMat Safety Consulting subsidiary and a contributing author to the Open Compute Project white paper titled Requirements for Energy Storage Systems Used in Data Centers, helped shape the document's guidance on dangerous goods transportation, regulatory compliance, and lifecycle safety for data center energy storage systems. Published in January 2026, the white paper addresses the safe design, operation, and maintenance of these systems as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing increase power density, load variability, and infrastructure complexity. As computing workloads drive greater power demands, energy storage has become critical across configurations ranging from rack-level battery backup units to centralized uninterruptible power supply systems and larger battery energy storage systems. The guidance covers safety and regulatory considerations including battery chemistry, testing, fire protection, transportation, emergency response, and end-of-life management. It examines technologies such as lithium-ion, nickel-zinc, lead-acid, sodium-ion, and supercapacitor systems, each carrying distinct risk profiles based on chemistry, architecture, and application. The paper also addresses higher-voltage power architectures and the specialized controls, training, and qualified personnel required for electrical and stored-energy hazards.

Testing and validation are central to the recommendations, with the paper referencing National Fire Protection Association NFPA 855 requirements for stationary energy storage systems and ANSI/CAN/UL 9540A 5th Edition (2025) for evaluating thermal runaway and fire propagation characteristics. For lithium-ion systems, the guidance outlines detection, mitigation, and emergency response strategies tied to thermal runaway risks. Additional protocols include United Nations Manual of Tests and Criteria Part III, Sub-section 38.3 testing for lithium battery design types prior to transportation, alongside dangerous goods transportation requirements covering packaging, marking, labeling, documentation, and training obligations throughout the equipment lifecycle. These requirements apply at multiple stages including initial deployment, replacement, return, repair, redeployment, and end-of-life shipment.

Mike Pagel emphasized the necessity of empirical testing over assumptions, stating, Calling something a lithium battery tells you almost nothing about how it will actually behave. Form factor and chemistry produce materially different hazards, and the only way to know is to test it; you don't know what you don't know until you do. That is why this guidance treats testing, not just chemistry, as central. Standards such as The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 855 establish important safety requirements, while testing, such as under UL 9540A, helps evaluate how a system actually responds to thermal runaway, rather than assuming behavior based on battery type alone. Robby Kinsala, CEO of Americase International, added that energy storage safety cannot be treated as a single event that begins when a battery enters the facility and ends once it is installed. He noted that risks and regulatory responsibilities extend from transportation and deployment through operation, maintenance, replacement, and end-of-life, and that the OCP white paper provides an important framework for bringing those considerations together as data centers scale energy storage to support next-generation computing.

The OCP Energy Storage Systems workstream collaborates with industry stakeholders to develop common requirements for safe ESS adoption, and the white paper is available through the Open Compute Project. HazMat Safety Consulting advises organizations on regulatory requirements for transporting, storing, and handling lithium batteries and other dangerous goods, while Americase and Fulcrum Testing provide complementary packaging, containment, and testing capabilities across the battery lifecycle. Americase International operates as a fully integrated enterprise delivering protection, containment, and mitigation solutions through regulatory enhancement, expert consultation, risk reduction, customized testing, specialized training, and protective packaging. Serving sectors including aerospace, defense, energy, medical, and technology, the company combines over two hundred years of regulatory experience with nearly fifty years in engineering, testing, and manufacturing innovation. More information is available at AmericaseInternational.com.