Legislators add to concerns around battery storage site in Catskill

Legislators expressed their concerns around a battery storage site proposed for the town of Catskill at a Greene County Legislator Meeting on Feb. 7.

John Farrell, county director of Emergency Services, brought up the topic at Wednesday’s Greene County Legislature meeting and explained how emergency services, local fire departments and the company in charge of the facility would handle fires or potential emergency calls at the site.

The proposed battery storage site, at 8006 route 9W in Catskill, would contain 136 battery containers producing 100 megawatts of power over a four-hour period.

The lithium iron phosphate battery cells would be stacked into modules and put onto racks. The racks would be stored in temperature-controlled steel containers that would be under 24-hour monitoring.

Utility scale energy storage systems (ESS) add capacity and resiliency to power grids. The systems consist of a series of modular battery containers located within a fenced gravel yard, according to Eolian Energy, the company that would receive the permit for facility while Catskill Grid would be in charge of the facility.

“Each container houses racks of batteries in a temperature-controlled environment,’ according to an email from Eolian Energy. “The ESS would be monitored 24 hours a day by a system operator. All wiring within the ESS facility will be underground and the structures themselves are about 8 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 20 feet long. Their design, construction, and operation are substantially similar, and they are meant for outdoor installations, mounted to the ground. The project has submitted an interconnection application with Central Hudson Gas & Electric (CHGE) and awaits final studies to interconnect into their system.”

At the meeting, Farrell said he has been reviewing safety plans with local departments and people within Eolian.

“I’ve spent the past month reviewing emergency plans for that location and had the opportunity to reach out to several different folks,” Farrell said. “First, was New York State Homeland Security to talk about three accidents and I then reached out to fire coordinators in the Hudson Valley Region. Warren Hart (deputy county administration) and I met with Ed Dolan (first assistant chief of the Catskill Fire Department) and Paul Rogers (co-founder) from the Energy Safety Response Group and also Justin Adams of Eolian.”

The batteries stored in the Catskill facility would undergo large-scale fire testing and would contain fans to cool the batteries to prevent fires, Rogers said.

While there have been three fires, Eolian said the ESS failure rates have been low.

“ESS fires are decreasing as a percentage of deployments,” according to Eolian. “In the rare instance that a fire could occur, emergency responders must be prepared for and work to minimize the potential impacts to the surrounding community as all fires create airborne toxins. Catskill Grid is working closely with the Catskill Fire Department and Greene County Department of Emergency Services in the development of a comprehensive site-specific emergency response plan. Additionally, Catskill Grid is closely monitoring the progress being made by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group. This group was convened following fires at battery energy storage systems at facilities in Jefferson, Orange and Suffolk counties this past summer.”

The energy company said with those fires, prevention is the first step. If an event were to occur, the battery is designed to burn itself out. Water however, is not recommended to be used directly on the battery but is available onsite and can be used at the discretion of the emergency responders.

County legislators however, are worried about the potential fires and what it means for the county.

“You [emergency services] do have a responsibility to the people you represent meaning the firefighters to express your opinion as to whether you think this is a good idea or not,” said Legislator Daryl Legg, R-Hunter/Halcottt/ Lexington. “Because I can tell you, when they proposed this for the Town of Hunter, we said no way....They came in and said they would give us training and that’s all fine and dandy until there’s a fire.”

Although Farrell said he understands everyone’s position, if a fire does break out, he has no problem reaching out to the state for help and the Catskill Fire Department will be set up a hot-zone staging area and if there is smoke, the only way to handle that is to place a water fog operation to control the smoke.

“This is going to be a problem,” Legg said. “It’s no benefit to anybody in this county.”

Catskill Fire Department Chief John Holt said there’s nothing the fire department can do once the facility is on fire.

“It would be an isolated fire within the unit the batteries are in, we cannot put water on batteries,” Holt said. “Eventually, it will burn themselves out within the unit. The company has Monnett (fire sensor) systems to tell if something catches on fire and they have a suppression system within the unit to keep it cool so it does not spread.”

In the event of a severe fire, residents would have to shelter in place or evacuate until the fire is under control, Holt said.

“There’s no putting the fire out, you just have to let it burn, and so you’re only trying to suppress the smoke a little bit,” said Legislator Michael Bulich, R-Catskill. “Prevailing wind takes it right into the Village of Catskill. We’ll be smelling it right here.”

The town’s Planning Board, however, does have final approval on the site and the next stages of the proposal, and does have the support of the county Emergency Services.

If the board does approve it, Farrell said it would take two years to build and “during those two years, we would continue emergency service to review and continue to update the emergency plan including management plan, evacuation plan, structure plans and hazardous materials.”

While Eolian said the air level from smoke at previous fires has stayed at safe levels and that Catskill Grid is working with local emergency responders to minimize potential impacts to the community, Bulich hopes the Planning Poard is aware of the potential risks and all the factors.

The Town of Catskill Planning Board is set to hold another meeting regarding the site at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 27.