Atacama Solar Farm BESS: Containerised Battery Energy Storage Enclosures, Chile

A utility-scale solar developer in Chile's Atacama Desert needed enclosures for a battery energy storage system, plus the switchroom to connect it, delivered to a grid-connect date the whole project keys off. Grid-scale storage is not just a box of batteries: the enclosure has to be engineered around the battery system's fire and thermal behaviour, with NFPA 855 detection, suppression, and separation, and thermal management sized to hold the cells in their window through desert days that run hot and nights that drop below freezing. It had to be sealed to IP55 against dust and the extreme UV, electrically derated for the altitude to IEC 60364 and IEC 61439, and built to NCh433 for the seismic zone.

SCS built the package as purpose-engineered BESS enclosures with the connection switchroom integrated to the same standard. The fire strategy was engineered to the battery chemistry, with the detection, suppression, gas-management, and unit separation NFPA 855 drives; thermal management was sized for the worst-case duty cycle across the Atacama's diurnal swing; the electrical was derated for altitude to IEC 60364 and IEC 61439; and the switchroom carried the protection, isolation, and metering the connection requires, all on an NCh433 seismic envelope. Built to the QA in our manufacturing process and proven on test, the package was craned onto its pads and made ready for connection to the array and the grid.

The enclosures and switchroom were positioned and ready for connection to the grid-connect date, so the storage scope did not hold the project off the grid. Because the package was engineered around the battery system from the enclosure out, the fire and thermal provisions were matched to the system rather than retrofitted, and the thermal management held the cells in their window through the desert swing. The altitude derating and NCh433 seismic detailing were engineered in the factory, not negotiated on site. The factory test meant site work was connection and verification, not first-fit and fault-finding.