As energy storage finds its way into everyday life around the world, focus on design for safety is imperative for battery technology to be adopted worldwide. Energy storage, especially as applied in telecom systems, must be properly managed independent of energy storage technology or battery chemistry. The paper will start with the roles of a simple battery management system and then scale up to the roles and functions of larger battery management systems. Two key categories are the energy storage technology at the cell level and the battery management system. Specific UL standards such as UL1973 and UL991, relevant IEC specifications, and UN DOT transportation requirements will be discussed. The paper will also cover the subtle realities of commercial installations which drive design requirements to create robust products in the 12V–48V applications typical of telecom environments. The ability of the energy storage to scale into series and parallel solutions is a key to technology adoption.