Singapore — October 8, 2026
At Data Centre World Asia 2026, Samsung SDI put two issues at the center of its data center battery showcase: how much power can fit into a limited space, and what happens when a battery fails inside that space.
The company unveiled a new cylindrical LFP battery and showcased a high-power 21700 nickel-based cell with a bottom-vent design for BBU applications. It also presented a UPS battery solution that Samsung SDI says has met all requirements of UL Solutions' Indoor Large-Scale Fire Test (Indoor LSFT).
Bottom venting changes the direction of gas release
The 21700 cell shown at DCWA uses a bottom-vent structure designed to release gas downward during abnormal conditions.
For batteries installed directly in server racks or other high-density equipment, venting direction is part of the mechanical safety design. The position of vents, electrical connections, thermal barriers and surrounding components all affect how a battery system responds to an abnormal event.
Samsung SDI has been positioning its cylindrical batteries for BBU applications around three requirements: space efficiency, high power and safety. Its latest DCWA presentation adds the bottom-vent design to that portfolio.
The more significant development is happening at rack level
Samsung SDI's UPS battery solution addresses a different part of the problem.
In its July announcement, the company said an Indoor LSFT conducted by UL Solutions deliberately forced a battery module inside a UPS rack into thermal runaway. The affected module was fully consumed, but Samsung SDI reported no fire propagation to surrounding racks, no gas release, explosion or rupture, and no activation of the overhead sprinkler system because the fire self-extinguished.
That makes the test more relevant than a simple cell-level safety claim. The question is no longer only how an individual cell behaves, but how a battery installation behaves when a thermal event occurs inside an operating UPS rack.
UL Solutions describes large-scale fire testing as a way to examine fire spread, heat release, gas emissions and the performance of protection measures under realistic installation conditions.
Battery density is only one part of UPS design
Samsung SDI's DCWA showcase is primarily about battery technology, but the engineering issue extends beyond the battery cabinet.
In AI data centers, BBU batteries may sit close to servers, while UPS batteries serve larger power systems. These two applications do not necessarily have the same electrical architecture, installation constraints or protection strategy.
The same distinction applies outside the data center market.
Industrial and medical projects often place greater emphasis on load characteristics, voltage conversion, electrical isolation, transformer configuration and UPS topology. In these applications, maximizing battery energy density is not necessarily the primary design objective.
This is where different UPS architectures continue to have a role. TAFENG Power supplies low-frequency UPS systems for industrial, medical and infrastructure applications where the overall electrical configuration is a key part of the UPS selection.
Samsung SDI's latest battery developments show one side of the industry's direction: higher density combined with more deliberate battery-level and rack-level safety design. The other side remains the system around the battery — the UPS, transformer, protection equipment and the electrical environment in which everything operates.
Note: Samsung SDI's fire-test results described above are based on information published by the company. Test performance does not represent a guarantee of identical results under different battery configurations, UPS systems or installation conditions.
