Letters

Reading The Southampton Press’s reporting and readership commentary on the proposed battery energy storage systems proposed for Hampton Bays got me thinking: Regarding BESS, I wonder what’s happening in my former field of employment, health care. Are hospitals — huge consumers of energy — turning toward green energy and BESS?

I find that the answer is yes. A report found at healthcarefaciltiestoday.com describes the implementation of a BESS at Richmond Hospital in California, a Kaiser Permanente facility.

A solar-storage microgrid system at the Kaiser Permanente’s Richmond Medical Center in California hospital has the potential to reduce energy bills by as much as 50 percent. The Richmond Medical Center microgrid combines a 250-kW solar parking lot canopy; a 1-megawatt lithium-ion battery storage system; an existing, on-site heat and power system; and real-time analytics linked to a high-performance data center.

Hospitals are always planning around safety — that’s why they have risk assessment and quality assurance departments. I’ve been retired for a while now, but I’m confident that the people at Kaiser Permanente, the Richmond hospital and their partners at California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development ensured due diligence in every step of the process.

Hospitals are turning to BESS for its potential contribution to safety and good patient care. All that life-saving equipment in hospitals needs a reliable and cost-effective means to keep machines functioning.

I write this to urge the Southampton Town community not to turn its back on technology that is making significant inroads in our most important and safety-conscious institutions. I do not question the concern raised about technological change that is new and different that enters our communities. But if/when a moratorium is imposed, I hope the experience of places like Richmond Medical Center is taken into consideration and that a full evaluation of BESS is undertaken. And, yes, safety first.

Lastly, and not so tangentially, these systems will play a huge role in our ability to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Southampton Town, a Climate Smart Community, has become a leader in implementing clean energy solutions. Let’s continue demonstrating that leadership.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton

Anthony is a former chair of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee — Ed.