NEW SCOTLAND — Members of the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company were on hand during a recent meeting of the New Scotland Planning Board to voice concerns about a large-scale battery energy storage system proposed for 1543 Indian Fields Road in Feura Bush.

RIC Energy — which says its system “is engineered to prevent fires” — is seeking permission from the town to install a five megawatt battery energy storage system, or BESS, on a portion of the 137-acre home of the New Scotland Beagle Club.

The proposed project would involve the installation of five Tesla-made units that stockpile renewable energy collected during the day and send it to the grid during peak-use evening hours. Each unit measures eight feet high by six feet wide and is 30 feet long.

The batteries are designed to discharge a maximum of 20,000 kilowatt-hours — roughly equivalent to the average daily electricity consumption of almost 700 homes — over a four-hour period.

On Aug. 5, concerns were raised by John Freihofer, a member of the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company.

Freihofer told planning board members, “We came because we heard this and we’re like, ‘This scares us — in the worst way possible.’ I mean, there’s things that we’ve seen and we’re being taught now. It’s like there’s a lot of issues that come with this, and the town will have to adjust.

“I mean, this is 11,000 square feet,” continued Freihofer, referring to the actual square footage the batteries will cover. “If there’s a fire, you’ll probably drop a million gallons of water [on the fire], all right? These are real numbers. The water system in Feura Bush cannot support this. We will pop [water] mains like they’re balloons.”

RIC response

Offered the chance to comment generally on safety and specifically to Freihofer’s concerns, RIC in a statement to The Enterprise said the company is “proud to be leading the state in raising the bar for safe, responsible battery energy storage installations. This project reflects our mission to deliver sustainable energy projects that help New Yorkers meet their growing energy demands while being a responsible and valued neighbor.

“This battery energy storage system is engineered to prevent fires and in the rare case where one starts, to contain it within the enclosure.  We proactively incorporated New York’s fire code into our planning ….”

Since the start of August, among other things, RIC has: 

— Engaged first-responders: The company said in its statement that it had held a live session on Aug. 11 with the Onesquethaw and Selkirk fire departments covering UL 9540A testing, defensive tactics, water needs, and isolation procedures and that RIC is committed to follow-up training and video resources;

— Distributed a site-specific hazard-mitigation analysis and preliminary emergency-response plan, which RIC said it is already in the process of updating, to the fire departments and planning board for review; and

— Confirmed compliance with the Town BESS Law and the New York State Fire Code as well as logging new safety items — “assembly point, comms redundancy, 4-hour on-site response” — for emergency response plan updates.

Planning board concerns

Chairman Jeffrey Baker asked Freihofer and one of his fellow Onesquethaw volunteers if they’d seen RIC’s emergency response plan; they hadn’t.

“I don’t know if they’re going to answer your questions or not,” said Baker, adding he wanted Wes Hillegas of RIC Energy to “get that information” to the firefighters.

“Yes, yes, that’s our full intention,” Hillegas responded to Baker. “We want to get together with everyone and anybody possible.”

Planning board member Dan Byrnes also had questions about responding to emergencies at the proposed project site.

Byrnes read from a downstate BESS response plan that said, “Locally, emergency responders shall be directed to stand by on-site, outside the fence line only to prevent the spread of fire outside the battery cabinet if necessary.”

He then directed his comment toward Hillegas, “So in other words, we’ve got the firefighters here saying, ‘How are we going to be pouring water on this, take care of the fire, and the documentation we have from you and from other response plans says, ‘That’s not we do.’”

Hillegas responded, “That’s something we’ll definitely address when we have a meeting with you all.”

He continued, “But yeah, the protocol typically is not to put water on these lithium iron phosphate batteries. It’ll make things worse. So, it’s to protect the area around it. Let our equipment, materials burn.” 

“When it’s in thermal runaway, you protect the area around it. You don’t want to put water on it,” Hillegas said. “And, again, this is in the low chance that this is going to happen, but, of course, you want to be prepared for something like that to happen.”

Thermal runaway in a BESS is a cycle of exothermic chemical reactions (reactions that release heat) that accelerate as the temperature rises, which can result in a fire. 

With RIC having to respond to just-received comments on the proposal from both the town planner and its engineering firm, Stantec, no board action was taken on the application.