Battery electric system having switchable architecture with thermal runaway protection

A battery electric system comprising:

• a direct current (“DC”) voltage bus;
• at least one electrical component connected to the DC voltage bus, wherein the at least one electrical component includes at least one of a chiller system, an air conditioning control module (ACCM), or an auxiliary power module (APM);
• a battery controller;
• and
• a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) connected to the DC voltage bus, wherein the RESS includes a plurality of battery modules, each respective battery module of the plurality of battery modules having:
• one or more battery cells;
• a cell sense board (CSB) in communication with the battery controller, and configured to measure and transmit a set of battery cell operating values to the battery controller;
• and
• a semiconductor switch connected in parallel with the one or more battery cells within the respective battery module of the plurality of battery modules, and configured to conduct an electrical current during a thermal runaway propagation (TRP) event in which the one or more battery cells of the respective battery module of the plurality of battery modules are in an open-circuit state, thereby automatically bypassing the one or more battery cells having the open-circuit state while the one or more battery cells of the remaining battery modules provide the electrical current to the chiller system, the ACCM, and/or the APM for thermal regulation of the battery electric system during the TRP event.