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A map of the proposed Battery Energy Storage System in Hampton Bays.
A moratorium on the approval of battery energy storage systems “of some kind” is coming, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman assured members of the Hampton Bays Civic Association at a recent meeting.
That night, May 22, members interrupted Westhampton Beach Village Mayor Maria Moore’s presentation about downtown revitalization and the village’s successful creation of a sewer district to ask about BESS systems. Schneiderman, who was in the audience, was asked to take the microphone and weigh in.
He noted that the Town Planning Board had received two applications for systems.
Canal Southampton Battery Storage LLC is seeking site plan/special exception approval for the construction of a battery energy storage unit system containing 30 battery enclosures, each with 24 battery modules, on a 4.9-acre property located off North Road in Hampton Bays.
The second, which seeks approval to construct a BESS just west of the car wash and across Montauk Highway from Bess Lane in Hampton Bays, was the subject of what’s known as a presubmission conference in February. Albany-based Key Capture is seeking approval for the installation of the battery storage system with a new 69kV point of interconnection substation, as well as a separate substation on a portion of the overall 8.25 acres on West Montauk Highway that would be conveyed to the Long Island Power Authority.
The Key Capture developer has yet to submit a formal application and could be captured in a moratorium. The Canal plan, however, has progressed far enough in its review process to warrant exemption. Typically, moratoriums exempt applicants whose plan has progressed in the review process.
Civic Association members voted to ask the Planning Board to rescind its declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Last October, they’d voted it wouldn’t have an adverse environmental impact.
But Civic Association members argue the board didn’t have enough information to make the determination. Six months elapsed before planners asked for the moratorium, “because the members of the board did not feel they had sufficient knowledge or information about such facilities to be able to make planning decisions regarding their applications,” according to the HBCA’s draft resolution.
On April 27, a public hearing on the Canal proposal packed the auditorium in Town Hall. According to the Civics’ draft resolution, “At that meeting, it was very clear that the Planning Board members had not been aware of the significant risk posed by lithium-ion battery fires and had not been aware that local emergency responders had no knowledge or training in how to cope with such fires.”
Board members directed the applicant and its consultants to meet with the local fire district, town fire marshals and the water district before the hearing continues on June 8.
According to Hampton Bays Fire Chief James Kappers, who is also superintendent of the Hampton Bays Water District, those interactions have occurred.
Wearing his water district hat, he reported that a meeting was held, and officials, upon learning of measures the applicant plans to take, felt reassured. Fires in the proposed BESS facility will be contained within individual battery enclosures, thanks to an array of monitoring requirements.
Additionally, the applicant proposes the installation of a fire hydrant at the North Road site, plus the construction of a special “stand pipe” in the Shinnecock Canal to allow firefighters to draw water in the event of a disaster. “We’d have an endless supply of water, if need be,” he said.
As fire chief, Kappers reported the district’s commissioners met via Zoom teleconference with consultants from Canal.
There are barriers built into the cells to present the fire from spreading. The only water usage that might be called for would be for protecting the surrounding area.
Fire districts and departments always plan for the worst-case scenario, he said. They asked about one instance when they could self-ignite and were satisfied with safety strategies that will be in place. “They proved their point, presented a lot of facts,” Kappers related.
As of this week, consultants had not met with the town fire marshal’s office, according to Public Safety and Emergency Management Administrator Ryan Murphy. He said his main concern was adherence to National Fire Protection Association standards.
“I’m pretty sure this one is being built to the NFPA standards,” he said. “Those standards, the hydrant on street and other things mentioned, are probably as satisfactory as we’re gonna get,” Murphy said.
You can never give 100 percent assurance that nothing’s going to go wrong, he added. “You just have to check the boxes saying we did everything humanly possible based on what we know to try and mitigate any problems, but you’re never going to be able to say there will never be a problem,” he said.
Also weighing in on the proposed moratorium and Canal project was Ralph Fuccillo, owner of the proposed site. He addressed the Town Board during its May 23 meeting. He noted “a lot of misinformation” about BESS sites has been circulating, and repeated information that had been provided to the Planning Board. The type of technology used in the BESS facility differs from that used in the e-bikes and e-cars. Comparing the fire hazard they pose to BESS facilities is comparing apples to oranges, he said.
The systems undergo rigorous certification before they’re allowed to be put into service. Then, they undergo monitoring “24/7,” he said.
Sited just within the cloverleaf off Sunrise Highway in proximity to a Long Island Power Authority substation, with the nearest residence more than a football field away, “there’s no better location in the Town of Southampton,” Fuccillo said. The developer, he added, has “checked all the boxes.” “As you’re talking about a moratorium, appreciate the fact the developer has spent a lot of money, a lot of planning. We’re at the 20-yard line.”
Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, who forwarded the moratorium request for the Planning Board, said she hopes to present the legislation this month.
Battery storage systems are part of the state’s new plan to capitalize on “green” energy, storing electricity produced by solar and wind producers to be returned to the electric grid as needed. Applications for the new systems are a relatively new phenomenon on the East End but have begun to surface in greater numbers.
