1 RCNY 101-19 (ESMS): NYC's stationary energy storage management rule.
1 RCNY 101-19 (the ESMS rule) regulates stationary energy storage installations — BESS, behind-the-meter storage, telecom UPS, solar-paired storage. If your building hosts one of these alongside its charging room, Kamenet's room-state monitoring (thermal + off-gas + tamper) provides a fire-detection adjunct to the ESS-resident BMS, surfaced via the BACnet/IP* + Modbus TCP* gateway (* in development; ask sales for current readiness).
Why this exists.
NYC saw a record 277 lithium-ion battery fires in 2024 (up from 267 in 2023). Civilian fatalities fell from 18 in 2023 to 6 in 2024 — a 67% drop as outdoor charging took hold (FDNY Commissioner announcement, March 14, 2025). But the trend reversed in early 2025: structural Li-ion fires through April ran 53% above the same period in 2024 (40 vs 26). The buildings that have not moved charging outside are where fatalities concentrate.
59% of the 2023 fires happened while batteries were not charging, which is why Kamenet's charging-room wedge leads with room-state monitoring under FDNY Fire Code §309.3 (Local Law 47 of 2022), §608, Local Law 39 of 2023, the FDNY E-Micromobility FAQ (June 2025), and Buildings Bulletin 2025-009.
1 RCNY 101-19 makes continuous monitoring the floor for covered stationary Energy Storage System installations. It went into force on Oct 26, 2025 alongside DOB Rule 3616-07.
What it requires
- Covered stationary Energy Storage System installations must have an Energy Storage Management System.
- The ESS-resident ESMS must monitor performance continuously and confirm operation stays within the manufacturer's limits.
- The ESMS must generate automated parameter alerts when a monitored value goes out of bounds.
- New ESS installations must register with the DOB before operation.
- Existing ESS installations must register by Oct 28, 2028.
- The ESMS provider approval path runs through the DOB Office of Technical Certification and Research.
In force as of Oct 26, 2025.
Covered stationary ESS installations after that date need the ESMS path in place.
How Kamenet aligns.
Kamenet sits beside the ESS-resident BMS as a room-state fire-detection adjunct
- Compliance Dashboard: continuous room-state monitoring, building onboarding metadata, and a compliance export that keeps the FDNY/DOB evidence trail in one place without claiming Kamenet measures ESS SoC, voltage, or current.
- Incident Intelligence & Response: deterministic rules decide the alert; the workflow assembles the packet, drafts downstream documents, and keeps human approval gates intact.
- Risk Scoring: slot-level thermal and off-gas history helps operators prioritize rooms and charging positions without claiming persistent identity for worker-owned batteries.
- Audit chain: every alert, threshold reference, approval, external action, and export is preserved in the hash-chained evidence trail.
- Emergency shutdown: deterministic triggers can reach the local relay and the BACnet/IP* or Modbus TCP* path where the ESS-resident BMS has that integration (* in development).
Current wording.
Aligned to 1 RCNY 101-19 (ESMS) as a fire-detection adjunct to the ESS-resident BMS.