2026 Energy Storage Safety & Reliability Forum – Agenda – DOE Office of Electricity Energy Storage Program

Albuquerque, NM | June 2-4

Agenda

Tuesday, June 2

BESS Safety and Reliability Tutorials

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
7:00 – 8:00am	Registration
8:00 – 8:10am	Welcoming Remarks from DOE	Mohamed Kamaludeen	DOE Office of Electricity
8:10 – 8:20am	Tutorial Opening Remarks and Objectives	Yuliya Preger	Sandia National Laboratories
8:20 – 9:20am	Topic 1: What causes thermal runaway?	Nathan Johnson/ Loraine Torres-Castro	Sandia National Laboratories
9:20 – 9:35am	Break
9:35 – 10:35am	Topic 2: Taming the Beast: System designs to address cell-level safety concerns	Jim McDowall	McDowall Advisors, IEEE Fellow
10:35 – 10:50am	Break
10:50 – 11:50am	Topic 3: What if Systems Fail?	Matthew Paiss	Sandia National Laboratories
11:50am – 12:10pm	Final Q&A

Forum Welcome and Opening Remarks

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
12:10 – 1:30pm	Lunch
1:30 – 1:35pm	Opening Remarks	Loraine Torres-Castro	Sandia National Laboratories
1:35 – 1:50pm	Welcoming Remarks from DOE and Safety Forum 10 Year Retrospective	Mohamed Kamaludeen	DOE Office of Electricity
1:50 – 2:50pm	Keynote Presentation: National Evaluation of BESS Reliability	Jack Norris	North American Electric Reliability Corporation
2:50 – 3:05pm	Break

Session 1: Affordable Next-Generation Battery Chemistries: Are Our Validation Methods Keeping Up?

Emerging chemistries, materials, and architectures — and how safety validation evolves alongside innovation

Moderator: Will McNamara, Sandia National Laboratories

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
3:05 – 3:15pm	Session Introduction	Will McNamara	Sandia National Laboratories
3:15 – 3:35pm	De-risking Emerging Chemistries: A Multi-Scale Approach to Na-ion and Solid-State Safety	Nathan Johnson	Sandia National Laboratories
3:35 – 3:55pm	The Sodium Safety Ladder: Climbing from Molecular Stability to Pack-Level Reliability	Heather Platt	Mana Battery
3:55 – 4:15pm	Near Real Time Diagnosis and Prognosis framework for Redox Flow Batteries	Jie Bao	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
4:15 – 4:35pm	A Mechanistic Investigation of the Relationship Between Battery Energy and Capacity	Matthieu Dubarry	University of Hawaii at Manoa
4:35 – 4:55pm	Zinc Batteries Today	Dan Lambert	ZincFive
4:55 – 5:25pm	Session 1 Q&A

Day 1 Closing Remarks and Reception

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
5:25 – 5:35pm	Closing Remarks	Vinod Siberry	DOE Office of Electricity
5:35 – 6:05pm	Transportation to National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
6:05 – 9:00pm	Welcome Reception at National Museum of Nuclear Science & History Sponsored by UL Research Institutes \| Electrochemical Safety and Energy Safety Response Group

Wednesday, June 3

Day 2 Welcome and Opening Remarks

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
7:00 – 8:00am	Registration
8:00 – 8:05am	Day 2 Opening Remarks	Yuliya Preger	Sandia National Laboratories
8:05 – 8:10am	Opening Remarks	Eric Hsieh	DOE Office of Electricity

Session 2: Why Do Energy Storage Systems Still Surprise Us? Bridging the Gap Between Component Testing and System Reality

How cell-level tests translate (or fail to translate) into full-system safety and reliability performance

Moderator: Vincent Sprenkle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
8:10 – 8:20am	Session Introduction	Vincent Sprenkle	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
8:20 – 8:40am	Thermal Runaway at Scale: Analyzing ESS Safety with Module to Rack Scale Models	Andrew Kurzawski	Sandia National Laboratories
8:40 – 9:00am	Thermal Runaway of Lithium-ion Batteries and Fire Suppression in an Aircraft Cargo Compartment	Byoungchul Kwon	ULRI – Electrochemical Safety Research Institute
9:00 – 9:20am	From Failure to Fallout: Environmental Impacts of the Vistra Moss Landing Battery Fire and Implications for Monitoring Following ESS Failures	Maxime Grand	San Jose State University
9:20 – 9:40am	From Cell to Module: Li-ion Battery Performance under Grid Duty Cycles	Daiwon Choi	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
9:40 – 10:10am	Session 2 Q&A
10:10 – 10:30am	Break

Session 3: What Does ‘Safe’ Really Mean? Defining Quantifiable Risk Thresholds for Energy Storage Systems

Probabilistic risk assessment, thermal runaway metrics, failure probability, and measurable safety performance

Moderator: Loraine Torres-Castro, Sandia National Laboratories

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
10:30 – 10:40am	Session Introduction	Loraine Torres-Castro	Sandia National Laboratories
10:40 – 11:00am	Thermal Runaway Thresholds at Cell Level Affected by Chemistry, Capacity and State-of-Charge	Hsin Wang	Oak Ridge National Laboratory
11:00 – 11:20am	Distributed Energy Storage Systems in Data Centers and the Need for Clear and Standard Reporting of Diagnostics/Prognostics and Hazard Communications	Brian Engle	Amphenol
11:20 – 11:40am	Stacking the Odds in Our Favor: Methods for creating safe and reliable batteries used in other industries need to be applied to ESS	Beth Schroeder	Belay Energy Solutions
11:40am – 12:00pm	Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) arc flash model verification and validation	David Rosewater	Sandia National Laboratories
12:00 – 12:30pm	Session 3 Q&A

12:30 – 1:30pm

Lunch

Session 4: Field Performance Under Real Operating Conditions: What Deployment Data Reveals About Reliability

Operational data, degradation trends, failure modes, and lessons learned

Moderator: Waylon Clark, Sandia National Laboratories

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
1:30 – 1:40pm	Session Introduction	Waylon Clark	Sandia National Laboratories
1:40 – 2:00pm	Insights from the Field: A Decade of Data on Battery Reliability and Safety	Aron Patrick	PPL
2:00 – 2:20pm	Supporting Local Jurisdictions with Practical Siting and Permitting Help	Jeremy Twitchell	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
2:20 – 2:40pm	BESS Risk and Failure Statistics	Lakshmi Srinivasan	Electric Power Research Institute
2:40 – 3:00pm	NFPP Operating Data: Raising the Ceiling on BESS Reliability	Hugh Ross	Peak Energy
3:00 – 3:30pm	Session 4 Q&A
3:30 – 3:50pm	Break

Session 5: Safety Considerations for Emerging Applications: New Duty Profiles, New Reliability Expectations

New use cases/duty profiles and how this creates new requirements for safety/reliability

Moderator: Yuliya Preger, Sandia National Laboratories

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
3:50 – 4:00pm	Session Introduction	Yuliya Preger	Sandia National Laboratories
4:00 – 4:20pm	Passively Safe by Design: A Ruthlessly Simple Approach to Second-Life BESS Safety	Andrew Hoover	Redwood Materials
4:20 – 4:40pm	Home Energy Storage: Science vs Fear	Jason Bobruk	Enphase
4:40 – 5:00pm	ESS in High-Density AI Infrastructure: Systems, Safety, and Standards	Josh Gerber	Symphonic Energy
5:00 – 5:20pm	Safety: The Overlooked Metric in BESS LTSA Availability	Adam Han	AEES Consulting
5:20 – 5:50pm	Session 5 Q&A

Day 2 Closing Remarks and Dinner

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
5:50 – 6:00pm	Closing Remarks	Vinod Siberry	DOE Office of Electricity
6:00 – 8:00pm	Dinner & Keynote Presentation Sponsored by CleanTech Strategies	Russ Weed	CleanTech Strategies

Thursday, June 4

Day 3 Welcome and Opening Remarks

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
7:00 – 8:00am	Registration
8:00 – 8:05am	Day 3 Opening Remarks	Ray Byrne	Sandia National Laboratories
8:05 – 8:10am	Opening Remarks	Kenny Kort	DOE Office of Electricity

Session 6: Lessons Written in Fire: What Incidents Teach Us (Panel)

Moderator: Matthew Paiss, Chair NFPA 800 Battery Safety Code

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
8:10 – 8:20am	Session Introduction	Matthew Paiss	Sandia National Laboratories
8:20 – 9:40am	Panel Session Michael O’Brian slides Victoria Hutchison slides	Ankit Sharma Michael O’Brian Jan Gromadzki Victoria Hutchison	Jensen Hughes Brighton Area Fire Department Tesla Energy Safety Response Group
9:40 – 10:00am	Break

Session 7: What Don’t You Know That Could Break Everything? The Standards and Public Information Gap Behind Safe and Reliable Deployment (Panel)

Standards alignment, data sharing, AI, industry best practices, and how dissemination accelerates safety improvements

Moderator: Jackie Huynh, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
10:00 – 10:10am	Session Introduction	Jackie Huynh	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
10:10 – 11:30am	Panel Session Jamie Kolln slides Jody Leber slides	Jamie Kolln Andrew Hoover LaTanya Schwalb Jody Leber	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Redwood Materials UL Solutions CSA Group

Day 3 Closing Remarks and Forum Adjourns

Time	Presentation	Speaker	Organization
11:30 -11:45am	Event Recap	Loraine Torres-Castro Yuliya Preger	Sandia National Laboratories
11:45am – 12:00pm	Closing Remarks	Mohamed Kamaludeen	DOE Office of Electricity
12:00pm	Adjourn and Lunch

Posters

Title	Author	Organization
AI Data Center Duty Cycle Development	Alasdair Crawford	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Battery Abuse Test Lab Operational Motivations	Minori Yoshida	Sandia National Laboratories
Battery Fire Plume Precursors in Enclosed Spaces	Emily Kowalchuk	Sandia National Laboratories
Battery Reliability Test Lab at the Grid Storage Launchpad	Ed Thomsen	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Detecting Battery Degradation Trajectories Using Multimodal Autoencoder Reconstruction Error	Nimat Shamim	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Early Thermal Runaway Detection Using Advanced Sensors in Scaled EV Packs	Vivian Tran	Sandia National Laboratories
Multiscale Safety Testing of Silicon-Graphite Anodes Paired with NMC811 Cathodes	Bryan Wygant	Sandia National Laboratories
Safety: The Overlooked Metric in BESS LTSA Availability	Adam Han	AEES
Thermal and Thermodynamic Diagnostics for Battery Degradation and Reliability	Qian Huang	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Toward understanding the effect of venting within simplified energy storage systems	Michael Meehan	Sandia National Laboratories

Interview Videos

Energy Storage Safety & Reliability Forum 10th Anniversary Retrospective Interview: Aron Patrick

Energy Storage Safety & Reliability Forum 10th Anniversary Retrospective Interview: Babu Chalamala

Energy Storage Safety & Reliability Forum 10th Anniversary Retrospective Interview: Michael Hoff

The Safety and Reliability Forum is organized by a collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity’s Energy Storage Division.