DIRAC AND SAFETY
Built to exceed safety standards
Energy storage is a different technology than it was ten years ago. Even as grid-scale deployment grew roughly tenfold since 2018, incident rates fell by 98 percent. The incidents that make the news almost all trace back to older facilities: indoor buildings, first-generation chemistry, codes written before the industry knew what it knows now. Dirac is built to today's standard instead. The table below lays the two approaches side by side across eight areas of safety design, so you can judge the difference yourself.
Two approaches, side by side
| DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH) | OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS | |
|---|---|---|
| Facility design | Outdoor design, with each battery enclosure physically separated from the next | Batteries enclosed inside a single closed building |
| Thermal cooling system | Liquid cooling, the current industry standard for keeping cells at a safe temperature | Air conditioning only, which struggles to control heat at the cell level |
| Battery chemistry | Lithium iron phosphate (LFP), the safer chemistry the industry has standardized on for new projects | Older lithium chemistries that catch fire more easily |
| Product safety | Proven, off-the-shelf battery units from established manufacturers | Custom or one-off designs with little field history |
| Monitoring | Monitored around the clock, with sensors that catch heat buildup before it becomes a problem | Suppression that only responds after a fire has already started |
| Safety code compliance | Meets or exceeds California Senate Bill 283 and the current UL 9540 and NFPA 855 fire and safety codes | Built to older codes, before the current safety rules existed |
| Fire authority engagement | Local fire district consulted before permitting even begins | Routine fire code review, late in the process |
| Operating record | A real track record: Cald facility, more than a year of operation with no fire incident | Safety claimed on paper, with no comparable record of safe operation to point to |
Facility design
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Outdoor design, with each battery enclosure physically separated from the next
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Batteries enclosed inside a single closed building
Thermal cooling system
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Liquid cooling, the current industry standard for keeping cells at a safe temperature
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Air conditioning only, which struggles to control heat at the cell level
Battery chemistry
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Lithium iron phosphate (LFP), the safer chemistry the industry has standardized on for new projects
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Older lithium chemistries that catch fire more easily
Product safety
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Proven, off-the-shelf battery units from established manufacturers
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Custom or one-off designs with little field history
Monitoring
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Monitored around the clock, with sensors that catch heat buildup before it becomes a problem
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Suppression that only responds after a fire has already started
Safety code compliance
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Meets or exceeds California Senate Bill 283 and the current UL 9540 and NFPA 855 fire and safety codes
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Built to older codes, before the current safety rules existed
Fire authority engagement
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
Local fire district consulted before permitting even begins
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Routine fire code review, late in the process
Operating record
DIRAC (AYPA'S APPROACH)
A real track record: Cald facility, more than a year of operation with no fire incident
OLDER FACILITY DESIGNS
Safety claimed on paper, with no comparable record of safe operation to point to
A closer look at the design
LITHIUM IRON PHOSPHATE: A SAFER CHEMISTRY
Dirac uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Compared with older lithium-ion chemistries, LFP stays more stable at high temperatures, meaning it is far less likely to overheat and catch fire. This quality, called thermal stability, is the main reason most new utility-scale storage projects in California now use LFP. The chemistry was chosen for safety, long life, and predictability.
AN OUTDOOR DESIGN BUILT FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
The storage enclosures are spaced apart from one another on a fenced outdoor site more than 1,100 feet from the nearest residential neighborhoods, and first responders have direct access from every approach. If a single unit ever overheats (a thermal event), the design keeps it contained to that one enclosure. The site is built so the local fire department can do its job effectively, because of the facility's design, not despite it.
BUILT TO TODAY'S CODES AND STANDARDS
- ● UL 9540 and UL 9540A: testing and certification for energy storage systems
- ● NFPA 855: fire safety and installation standards for stationary energy storage
- ● UL 1973 and UL 1741SB: battery and inverter safety performance
Designed with the fire district, proven in the field
Dirac is being designed hand in hand with the Chino Valley Independent Fire Protection District from the earliest engineering stages: fire authority at the table before the first permit, not after. That early consultation also satisfies California Senate Bill 283.
Prepared for the unexpected, by design
Strong prevention comes first, but Dirac's design assumes the question everyone asks: what if something does go wrong? The answer is engineered in layers:
- ● Around-the-clock monitoring with sensors designed to catch heat buildup early, so issues are addressed long before they escalate
- ● Physical separation between battery enclosures, engineered so an issue in one unit stays in that unit
- ● Ongoing safety and response trainings with the Chino Valley Independent Fire Protection District, before and during operations
- ● A site-specific emergency response plan developed with the fire district, which has reviewed the project's design
Aypa's Cald storage facility in Los Angeles has operated for more than a year with a clean safety record, built by the same team, to the same standards, with the same equipment planned for Dirac.
No combustion to produce power. No daily diesel traffic. Independent review.
An energy storage facility has one of the smallest air-quality footprints of any industrial use that could be built on this parcel. Dirac burns no fuel to produce power; the only combustion equipment on site is a pair of emergency backup generators, the same kind hospitals and schools keep. There is no daily diesel truck traffic, and the site is essentially unstaffed.
Real-world operating data and extensive modeling point to the same result: in every incident scenario studied, air quality outside the project perimeter stays within safe levels.
INDEPENDENT REVIEW
A full health risk assessment and air dispersion modeling study are part of the project's environmental review, conducted by independent firms credentialed in California regulatory practice.