Samsung SDI to wrap up 200 billion won ESS safety upgrade 

Samsung SDI will soon wrap up its 200 billion won project to increase the safety at its energy storage systems (ESS) in South Korea, TheElec has learned.

The company has applied shock detection sensors, commenced firmware updates and installed fire extinguishing systems at existing ESSs at around 1,000 sites in the past eight months.

These systems need to be put on halt for installations and Samsung paid for the cost incurred by these to its customers, leading to the 200 billion won bill, which is equal to its operating profit per quarter.

New ESSs that it will sell will also have them same safety measures applied.

The project was initially slated to wrap up in June but delays caused by scheduling issue with some customers delayed this by a month.

Samsung SDI hopes that the end of the project will mean the local ESS ecosystem will began recovering.

A slew of fires in some of these systems has caused the an enormous dip in demand for these systems. There has been 28 reported cases of fire between August, 2017 to October, 2019, which nearly stopped all new orders.

Samsung SDI’s profits are expected to return to form going forward. The company is expected to post operating profits of up to 78 billion won and revenues of 2.52 trillion won, according to South Korean analysts.

Its mid- to large-sized battery business is expected to see a sales of 1.272 trillion won in the second quarter, a rise of 6.1% from the previous quarter. Sales from ESS out of the total is expected to have risen to 20% from the previous quarter, returning to the black.