Next public hearing is Nov. 20 Board of Zoning Adjustment meeting
The Henderson-Henderson County Joint Planning Commission Tuesday evening approved the recommendation to rezone a 6-plus acre parcel of land on South Green Street where Henderson Municipal Power & Light plans to locate a battery energy storage system.
The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend to the Henderson City Commission to approve the request from HMP&L that would change the zoning of the 6.878 acre-site at 2230 S. Green St. from general business to heavy industrial. The parcel abuts the utility’s Substation #7.
A rezoning is the first step in the process that could allow a BESS to locate at the site. A second step will occur Nov. 20 when the city’s Board of Zoning Adjustments meets to determine if and what conditional uses will be placed on the project.
Current city ordinances require BESS to be located on land zoned heavy industrial, which requires a 100-foot buffer between equipment and a residential area, among other requirements. BOZA could place stricter conditional uses on the project.
At Tuesday’s planning commission meeting, the prime question from planning commissioners revolved around the safety of battery energy storage systems.
Battery storage systems in this country and around the world have experienced thermal runaway events in which fires that started from overheated batteries continued for days and weeks. Officials who’ve dealt with them say the only way to put them out is to let them burn out. Because of the chemical nature of the fire, water does not extinguish them.
HMP&L General Manager Brad Bickett said the technology of these systems, including the lithium ion batteries that will be in the proposed system, has improved and are more stable, leaving a fire less likely to occur. He also said the design of BESS has changed so that any fire is isolated, thus keeping it from spreading. (Both of these points were made in a previous story about BESS published by the Hendersonian in October.)
Commissioner Heather Toews, who was not present, left questions for planning commission staff to be ask at the meeting. In one, she asked about a safety recommendation that said residents and businesses within a 1-mile radius need to be prepared to shelter in place for up to a week should a thermal runaway event occur.
Bickett said that was an old recommendation that was made with old technology in mind. He said the current recommendation is for residents and businesses within a 150-foot radius to shelter in place during a thermal runaway event.
As for specific plans for the BESS at the proposed location, Henderson Fire Department Chief Josh Dixon said that the city of Henderson hired a consultant, Summit Fire Consulting, to advise local officials. He said local officials have requested that the company that will build and maintain the BESS, NextEra Energy, send the specific plans of the project. Dixon said NextEra has not yet shared the plans, and so he couldn’t answer questions if the planned BESS will be safe.
Bickett countered that though site specific plans have not yet been shared, the company has forwarded documentation indicative of what will be in place at the site. He said final engineering at the site, which will include 14 modules, is three months away.
Nearby resident Leslie Cannon, who lives on Old Corydon Road, said he has several concerns, including the dangers of smoke released in a fire, home insurance prices once the BESS is in place and the chance of a fire, among other anxieties.
“I just feel like we’re being thrown under the bus,” said Cannon, who has lived in his home for 54 years. He also disagreed with plume study information shared by Bickett that show 50 feet is enough of a buffer to be safe from the chemicals released in the smoke of a thermal runaway event. He said high winds that occur in the area regularly will blow chemicals much farther than that.
In other pieces of the meeting, Bickett said a BESS at that location will save the utility $750,000-$1 million annually and will help the utility to keep customer rates as low as possible.
Additionally, Bickett said the location right next to Substation #7, which he called an “optimal location,” is important because it is near a highly industrial area on the other side of Green Street that includes Gibbs Die Casting, Taubensee and other factories. Bickett said “30% of all power that HMP&L gives off” comes through Substation #7.
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The Board of Zoning Adjustment will hold a public hearing and then determine if a conditional use is granted for the BESS at the location. The special called meeting will be 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the Municipal Services Center at 1449 Corporate Park.
