Safety concerns spur Putnam moratoriums
A surge in moratoriums approved by municipalities in Putnam and other counties is sapping the energy from the state’s quest to deploy lithium battery systems to store electricity for periods of high demand.
The Carmel Town Board on July 10 approved a six-month moratorium on applications for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), along with a temporary pause on proposals for commercial solar installations.
New York State considers battery technology important to achieving its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because the systems can store excess electricity from solar and wind and feed the power to the grid during periods of low generation.
But fires at storage facilities in Orange County and elsewhere in the state have alarmed residents and public officials concerned about explosions and toxic fumes.
Mahopac residents angered by an East Point Energy proposal to build a 116-megawatt BESS on the hamlet’s border with Somers packed Carmel Town Hall in June for a public hearing. Spectators applauded on July 10 when the board voted unanimously to institute the pause, which East Point said it is “assessing.”
Carmel said it wants to study the “safety and security” of the systems, including “thermal runaway, off-gassing and toxicity.” The town also said the moratorium is intended to “ensure emergency responders have the resources and training “to prepare and deploy resources in the event of a fire.”
On the same day Carmel approved its pause, Putnam Valley approved a moratorium of up to one year on BESS facilities and wind-power projects so that its Building and Zoning Department can work with the Planning Board on regulations.
Kent and Mount Kisco also have passed moratoriums, and Yorktown is considering one.
“Renewable energies are going to be a bigger part of our life,” said Jacqueline Annabi, the Putnam Valley supervisor, last month. “I don’t think it’s going to be 100 percent, but it is a trend that is getting bigger, and we have to do something.”
New York has set a goal of 6,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030 to support the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Renewable energy is expected to fully power the state’s homes and businesses by 2040.
Overheating can cause lithium-ion batteries to enter a phase called “thermal runaway,” leading to fires and the release of fumes containing chemicals. Incidents at commercial battery-storage facilities are infrequent, according to the nonprofit Energy Power Research Institute.
But some of the Mahopac residents opposing East Point Energy’s plan to build its Union Energy Center at a 94-acre property in the hamlet cited a fire that occurred in Warwick, Orange County, in June 2023 at a newly opened BESS installed on land belonging to the Warwick school district.
Convergent Energy installed three 4-megawatt systems, including two on school district property, to supply 7,500 customers of Orange & Rockland Utilities. An executive with Convergent told the school board in October that water seeping into a battery container caused an electrical short that started the fire.
Two other fires, in Jefferson and Suffolk counties, took place in the summer of 2023, prompting Gov. Kathy Hochul to announce the formation of an Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group to investigate the safety and security of the systems.
Initial findings from the group, released in December, found “no reported injuries and no harmful levels of toxins detected” in air, soil and water. Hochul also said that the state would be inspecting operating commercial-scale storage systems with a capacity above 300 kilowatts.
Recommendations issued by the Working Group are the basis for draft updates to the state’s fire code released last month. The recommendations include regular inspections, requiring developers to pay for independent reviews of their projects and removing an exemption to the fire code for systems owned or operated by utilities.
According to the Working Group, its recommendations would apply to BESS systems with a capacity of more than 600 kilowatts, the same size facilities covered by Putnam Valley’s moratorium.
Judy Allen, a member of Sustainable Putnam, warned the Town Board against “an outright prohibition” on renewable projects. “Balanced regulations” on the permitting of projects are a better approach than an outright ban, she said.
“Rejecting all clean energy projects across the board would be shortsighted and harmful,” she said. “Everything we construct has some negative ecological impact.”
Video by Scott Rausenberger
Thank you for this article. Do you have any data on the odds of an accident happening at a BESS facility compared to other forms of energy generation and storage, e.g., methane (natural gas), hydropower, coal, wind, solar, nuclear, etc.? It’s hard to understand the relative pros and cons of battery facilities without knowing how they compare to other options.
We haven’t seen any comparisons like that, only studies on the risks associated with BESS. An industry group, the American Clean Power Association, argues battery storage is relatively safe based on statistics that compare its rapid growth to the less rapid growth of incidents such as fires.