Thermal Runaway Shield

A thermal runaway protection system for serially-connected battery cells, comprises a flexible thermal runaway shield (“TRS”) and a channel separator. The flexible TRS is configured to be disposed around the serially-connected battery cells. The channel separator is configured to be disposed at a positive cap of one of the serially-connected battery cells. The channel separator comprises a body and a via configured to electrically connect two sides of the channel separator. The body has a raised outer ring with a gap for venting gas during thermal runaway. The raised outer ring is configured to be in contact with the positive cap. The flexible TRS has an opening aligned to the gap of the outer ring.