A plan to build a battery energy storage system on South Green Street has been “tabled indefinitely,” according to Henderson Municipal Power & Light’s general manager.
Brad Bickett told the Hendersonian in a recent interview that the “powers that be” have directed HMP&L to stop work on a plan to install a BESS next to Substation #7 at 2230 S. Green St.
The move comes in the wake of community distaste for renewable energy projects and proposals in Henderson County. Two massive solar farms in the Robards area have angered residents in or near that town, some saying it has destroyed the once idyllic landscape they grew up in and loved.
A project currently in the talking stage is a proposed windmill energy conversion system, which according to the company pursuing it would entail as many as 50 wind turbines that would be close to 700 feet tall. A proposal, however, submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration—that Cordelio Energy reps say entails a footprint larger than what they intend—includes locations for 93 wind turbines in eastern Henderson County.
Because of recent blowback for these projects, Bickett said Henderson leaders are “not interested in pushing forward (with the BESS) given the public sentiment.”
Henderson Mayor Brad Staton said he met with Bickett recently to discuss the BESS project. He said Bickett left the discussion in agreement that the BESS project should be put on hold.
In addition to the meeting with the mayor, Bickett said he also spoke with HMP&L’s utility commission, which was also in favor of pausing any work on the BESS.
The mayor, like many residents who attended a November city Board of Zoning Adjustments meeting, said he has concerns about the project’s technology. Like those residents, Staton said he was concerned about fires that have occurred at other BESS in the country and around the world.
Some fires that have broken out at BESS locations grow until they become massive—called thermal runaway events—and because it is an electrical fire, fire departments’ recourse was to watch while they burned themselves out.
Staton said another concern involves the Henderson Fire Department’s policy to remain at a scene until the fire is completely out. The mayor said a thermal runaway event could “tie up resources for days on end” and cause a strain if other emergencies occurred at the same time as a thermal runaway event.
Staton said he was also concerned that plans called for off-site monitoring of the facility which would slow response times.
Most often, HMP&L’s leadership and utility commission decide its course of action. But Staton said in big projects, like a BESS, it’s a combined decision.
He said he’s not against renewable energy per se, but he said his priority is to keep the community safe. He wanted to hear answers to safety questions, such as plume study data, on the front end of the process.
That was a major concern for those in attendance at the November BOZA meeting. The city of Henderson zoning ordinance requires that a BESS be in a heavy industrial zone and a conditional use permit be granted by BOZA for these systems to be constructed. The parcel on which the BESS was proposed had already been zoned heavy industrial.
At the meeting in which HMP&L was pursuing a conditional use permit, many residents were concerned about safety, despite both Bickett and a representative of NextEra Energy, repeatedly saying the new technology is much safer than old BESS systems. But neither Bickett nor NextEra had the studies or data in hand to prove it—at least not to the liking of the crowd or a majority of BOZA members.
After a nearly four-hour meeting, BOZA denied HMP&L’s request with a 3-1 vote.
After that meeting, Bickett said the lack of studies documenting the new BESS technology’s safety was a determining factor in not getting the conditional use permit. He said at the time the project hadn’t progressed far enough for NextEra to take on the studies, which include site and plume studies. Because the studies are expensive to take on, companies most often don’t initiate them until the project has progressed to a point in which its completion is more assured, Bickett said.
One BOZA member, Heather Knight, said after the November meeting that the lack of documentation or studies at the presented by HMP&L and NextEra kept her from voting for approval.
“I felt like I didn’t have enough information,” Knight said then.
Six months later in May, Bickett presented a letter to the Henderson City Commission in which HMP&L wanted to re-submit an application to the city’s BOZA and again attempt to get approved for a conditional use permit. In addition, Bickett wrote in the letter that the utility will pay for appraisals and offer to buy three residences closest to the battery energy storage facility’s planned location.
Now, with HMP&L’s hope for a BESS at the location on hold, Bickett said that NextEra is continuing to work on the project with the idea that if something changes in the future, the company could again attempt to build the BESS.
No HMP&L employees are currently working on the project, he said.
Meanwhile, a nearly 400-acre solar farm project that HMP&L is pursuing near the 425-Bypass is not affected. Its site plan was recently approved by the Henderson City-County Planning Commission.
The solar farm had been projected to move energy to the South Green Street BESS for storage. Bickett said that the energy collected at the solar farm can be transferred directly to Substation #7 and then dispersed to provide 20% of the energy needed by city residents and businesses.
The South Green Street BESS, according to Bickett, would have been able to meet 10% of HMP&L’s capacity needs. Bickett said in 2027, which was the target date of having the BESS online, both residential and industrial/commercial customers were projected to see their rates increase by one cent per kilowatt hour with the BESS in place. Current rates are about eight cents per kilowatt hour for residential customers and six cents per kilowatt hour for industrial/commercial customers.
Now that the BESS will not be pursued, Bickett foresees that HMP&L rates will increase by about two cents per kilowatt hour for both residential and industrial/commercial customers. The cost of having the BESS there is lower than the fixed cost of natural gas and coal agreements that HMP&L will have in place in 2027, he said.
“We recognize as a community-owned utility that safety is a big component for us,” Bickett said, adding that if the community is not comfortable with an initiative, “we go to the next lowest cost option.”
