Is it too late? Proposed battery standard worries data center industry

A furious — but late — response to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA’s) proposed standard 855, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage, should put the whole data center industry on notice that it needs to increase its participation in standards development worldwide. This is not the first time professional bodies outside of the data center industry have developed standards without sufficient considered input from data center owners and operators.

Standard 855 is controversial because if it is adopted by the NFPA (a U.S.-based fire-safety standards organization), it will eventually become the basis of building codes in the U.S. and elsewhere. These codes will regulate how batteries (including nickel-cadmium and lithium-ion [Li-ion]) can be deployed in data centers.