The Henderson County Fiscal Court Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a zoning ordinance for battery energy storage systems.
The first read of the ordinance, which was unanimously approved, came without any dissent from nearby residents, though two who live a nearby proposed BESS site attended the meeting.
In a previous Henderson-Henderson County Joint Planning Commission meetings, resident James Franks said he was opposed to bringing battery energy storage to Henderson County. But Tuesday he said the added measures that Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider and county staff had added to the zoning ordinance are agreeable.
Approving county zoning for battery energy storage systems publicly began at a June planning commission meeting, when commissioners raised concerns about the safety measures and language of the initial ordinance proposal.
At the end of that meeting, Schneider withdrew that proposal and promised to come back to the next month’s planning commission meeting with a revised ordinance proposal.
At July’s planning commission meeting, Schneider returned with a revision that was based on the city of Henderson’s already-approved BESS zoning ordinance. Main provisions of that ordinance say that a battery utility storage system must be located in parcels zoned heavy industrial. It also says that the city fire marshal and fire chief must sign off on the site plan for a BESS development.
In the county’s version, the volunteer fire chief whose jurisdiction the battery storage system is built in must sign off on the site plan, as well as the state codes inspector, said Schneider. After the BESS is operational, it must be inspected annually by the state fire marshal, Schneider said.
Franks lives about a mile from an installation proposed by Yellowthroat Energy Storage LLC, a subsidiary of Tenaska Energy. That group has submitted plans for a BESS on a 35-plus acre parcel on Toy-Anthoston Road.
Franks, himself a volunteer fire department firefighter who would respond to any emergencies at the BESS, said having the VFD chief sign off on the safety of the site plan has allowed him to accept the ordinance.
“As long as my chief is on board and he’s training me, we’ll be OK,” Franks said.
Franks, however, went a step further and suggested that the city of Henderson fire chief should also be required to sign off on the site plan because if fire broke out at a BESS in the county, the city fire department most likely would need to respond, too.
At some battery energy storage systems in the nation and throughout the world, fires, some of them massive, have occurred. These are called thermal runaways and are caused when batteries inside the compartments of a storage system overheat.
Chemical reactions within the batteries hasten the blaze, and officials who’ve dealt with these say that spraying with water won’t put out the fire. Experts say that letting the fire burn itself out is the best approach to dealing with it.
Additionally, a measure connected to the ordinance requires that a safety committee compile a list of questions regarding safety, Schneider said. The questions would be used by different government agencies to ask companies as they go through the process of bringing a BESS to the county, and it would ensure that the company will build a safe facility, Schneider said.