Our CEO & President, Catherine Von Burg, recently sat down with Josh Brumm of Battery Systems to discuss energy storage on his “All Things Energy Storage” radio show. Take a look at some of the highlights below, ranging from Public Safety Power Shutoff preparedness in California to why lithium battery chemistry is so critical.

 “Because of the fires [in California], utilities are now turning off the lights. They’re shutting down different sections on the transmission grid during times of high winds because of drought areas in California and what has happened in the Thomas Fire that we experienced as a company in Ojai to Santa Clara. So if homeowners are looking at planned outages by the utilities to safeguard the public interest because of high winds and the risk of lines going down during drought, people then have batteries on site to provide backup power for those hours or days that the utility has had to turn off the grid. So that’s a reality in California. But backup power generally, whether it’s a planned utility outage or some other catastrophic event, grid tied systems with batteries allow homeowners to achieve that resilience and independence with regard to their energy.”

“The fact that we also were the first to think about the toxicity and hazards of your traditional lithium cobalt batteries – the NMC/NCA – and consciously choosing to use a newer innovation and chemistry – lithium iron phosphate or ferro phosphate – that eliminates cobalt, which is behind the fires and thermal runaway – not lithium. Cobalt is toxic. So with that, thinking about the chemistry, even though it was a more expensive chemistry at the time, that turned into an opportunity as it challenged the company to come up with solutions back in 2010-2012 that nobody had available in the market. So working with the Dept of Defense on forward operating bases in Afghanistan, eliminating failure, eliminating the risk of fire and explosions in critical operations.” – Catherine Von Burg, CEO & President of SimpliPhi Power.

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