Town to hold Public Hearing on potential battery energy storage system

TICONDEROGA | Just when you think you've seen everything, the small Adirondack Park town of Ticonderoga is being eyed as a site for lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS). If you have no idea what those are, keep reading because a public hearing will be held on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m. at the Ticonderoga Community Building at 132 Montcalm Street to hear the public's input. "This is all part of New York State's Green Initiative," explained Ti Town Supervisor Jim O'Bryan, who has a background in Health and Safety with International Paper Industrial. "What BESS is meant to do is absorb excess power on the grid. They will sit and hold that power, and where the grid is showing a drop in power, BESS releases energy back into the grid line." The Town is currently in a six-month moratorium so facts may be gathered and ample time available for study, with the intention to make a fully educated decision on whether BESS is right for Ticonderoga. Gwendolyn Craig of the "Adirondack Explorer" reported in her April 11 article that rural communities like in the Adirondacks, are being targeted for storage systems because BESS provide more power reliability in rural areas. "The storage systems provide power during windstorms and other outage events while utility crews get to the site and restore service," Craig wrote. She also reported that as of this past January, New York had about 500 megawatts' worth of battery energy storage. New York's goal is to have 6 gigawatts of energy storage online by 2030." These proposed projects introduce critical issues like fire safety and impacts to the environment and wildlife. The APA has not yet approved the Ti BESS, but did approve one near Great Sacandaga Lake. As a refresher, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are a high-energy-density, rechargeable power source that uses the movement of lithium ions between an anode and cathode to store and release energy. They are used in electronics and electric vehicles due to being lightweight, long-lasting, and capable of high power output. They are in your cell phones and laptops and are prone to exploding when overheated, causing extensive fire damage (residents Bill and Angela Brown lost their house in Putnam and all their belongings to one such fire a few years back). For the potential BESS in Ticonderoga, the site identified is a 10-acre lot out on the Hague Road directly across from the burned-down Adirondack Lanes bowling alley. "They would be on the Hague Road because the main transition yard for National Grid is out there and they need to tie into it," O'Bryan revealed. According to the supervisor, 50 megawatts (what the Ti BESS would be) is ten units, with each unit the size of a trailer on a tractor-trailer truck that have batteries stored in them. "They are very sophisticated, sealed units, and the ones built in Ticonderoga will be built by Tesla," O'Bryan said. The life expectancy for the Ti BESS would be 20 years. But what happens to the equipment once it has outlived its usefulness? Will the units sit and slowly, if ever, decompose the discarded solar panels that seem to slowly be swallowing up the natural beauty in Ticonderoga? There is no answer for that question as of yet. BESS are technologies that carry high-consequence risk if they fail. And there are numerous locations in which they have failed, and failed catastrophically. BESS carry a risk for thermal runaway, a chain reaction that often leads to a fire. In a report written at the request of the Hauppauge Fire Department in Long Island about a proposed BESS system, author Richard Ellenbogen documented the aftermath of the Moss Landing BESS explosion on the Monteray Peninsula in California. A 300 Megawatt- 1200 Megawatt BESS facility caught fire and burned over the course of two days (the system was only a little over four years old). 1,250 people were evacuated over a 2.75-mile radius "Smaller fires have required evacuation zones with a radius of a mile to half a mile," Ellenbogen wrote. That incident was also not the first time a system had ignited at Moss Landing. The effects of that disaster were studied for a subsequent year, and findings revealed the ground and the water near the plant had suffered the most damage. And lithium-ion battery fires do not just burn- they break down chemically and release toxic and corrosive gases. A few common ones include hydrogen fluoride (can damage lungs, skin, and eyes even at low levels), carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane, and ethylene. The fires are also unable to be controlled or extinguished by water. Burning at 2,600-5,000 degrees-F, the explosion would have to be left to its own devices and burn out on its own, generally over a period of days. Though water cannot suppress a BESS fire, the local fire department would receive professional training, and the facilities would be continuously monitored 24/7 (albeit remotely from a control center). For the proposed Hague Road BESS site, O'Bryan shared a few concerns. "In that particular spot, the first thing you're worried about are the other batteries. When one unit goes up, the danger is that it can impinge on other units, and then other units go up. You can't fight a 5,000-degree fire, you can't put water on it, it will come after you, it will explode. What happens if there is a rainstorm?" O'Bryan said. "You can put water on the other units to keep them cool, but if water penetrates inside those sealed units, you could have a bigger problem." The second big problem is that half–a-mile up the hill from the site is the hospital, two nursing homes filled to capacity, and two apartment complexes (Lord Howe Estates and Moses Circle Apartments) housing elderly residents. "How do we set up to vacate that many elderly and patients that are being treated?" O'Bryan reflected. "For us in this particular position, this may not be the best spot. This may be an area that isn't suited quite for what the BESS needs." Tesla, who as mentioned would be the manufacturer for the Hague Road facility, also recently had a lithium-ion battery fire out in AZ. So what benefits would BESS bring to Ticonderoga? "If all runs to design, it would help us in times when we are lacking power. This particular system they are talking about here would be able to back-feed the system for five hours in a power outage," O'Bryan said. "There are tax implications for tax dollars, what that looks like I can't tell you, I have no idea at this point, that would be something we would have to negotiate with the companies." There are also claims that BESS save people on their energy bills, dependent on how they are used and who owns them. Community members will need to weigh the risk and decide if they feel the industrial marvel is the right fit for Ticonderoga. Every resident is strongly encouraged to attend the Public Hearing on May 14 and let their feelings be known on whether they would like to see lithium-ion BESS out on the Hague Road. "I think we still have more studying to do on this issue for both sides and getting comfortable with whether or not this is something we think we can operate here safely or something we feel we would rather not be a part of," O'Bryan said. For questions or more information on BESS, please call Supervisor O'Bryan at 518-585-6265, Ext. 1.

Signup for our newsletter

Town to hold Public Hearing on potential battery energy storage system

COMPANY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SUBMISSION FORMS

BEYOND THE NEWS