East Hampton battery-storage site that caught fire to be offline for a year

A barn-sized battery-storage facility in East Hampton that experienced a fire in May will be out of commission for more than a year as developer NextEra works to remediate the site and largely replace the device, the company said this week. 

The 5-megawatt facility in East Hampton, which had been in operation since 2018, experienced a fire on May 31 that took it out of commission for the summer, a peak-power period the device was designed to help alleviate, Newsday previously reported.

NextEra, which developed the project with partner National Grid under contract to LIPA, in responses to Newsday on Monday said damage from the fire will require that the facility be largely rebuilt. But that won’t happen until the company can remove all the damaged equipment, which spokesman Bill Orlove said won’t happen until the end of the year.

Developments at the site come as some residents of Brookhaven have been raising alarms about a recently state-approved 110-megawatt battery planned for Holtsville, and the Long Island Power Authority negotiates contracts for several more around Long Island. LIPA is expected to announce contracts for new batteries, including two projects rated at a combined 150-megawatts in Holtville, sometime early next year. 

No one was injured in the May 31 fire at the facility on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton, which sits a few hundred feet from homes and businesses, near a LIPA substation. The device is one of two that LIPA contracted for under a $110 million contract. The second battery is in Montauk.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation in a statement said it requested a cleanup work plan from NextEra that included sampling of metals and other “regulated contaminants in the area of runoff.” The DEC is “awaiting the results of the completed investigation of the site,” which it will “continue to monitor until all activities are complete.”

The DEC said all runoff from the fire suppression  was “contained to the property.” An unnamed contractor is performing the clean up the site, DEC said.

DEC said it will review results of the investigation and “ensure that any impacted material will be properly disposed in accordance with state laws that protect public health and the environment.”

Orlove declined to say what it would cost to replace the equipment and remediate the site, nor would he detail how it will be paid for. “I cannot provide cost information, which is covered by a confidential agreement with” LIPA. He said the facility being offline “does not cause an immediate power reliability impact to the area.” Fall and winter are not peak power seasons.

LIPA previously told Newsday the cost of repairs at the 4,100-square foot East Hampton facility would be paid by NextEra Energy and National Grid, not ratepayers.

As for the safety of the unit, Orlove said the company “plans to apply lessons learned from this situation to mitigate future incidents.” He said the system’s water-based fire-suppression systems worked “as designed, and quickly contained the May 31 fire to the site.”

Orlove said all NextEra energy storage facilities are managed, monitored and cooled “in a controlled manner to keep the equipment functioning safely.” He did not elaborate on the cause of the fire.

The East Hampton fire is one of three across the state at battery storage facilities this year that led Gov. Kathy Hochul to form an inter-agency task force to investigate the devices and develop best practices for developing, locating and monitoring them.

The fires have raised alarms on Morris Avenue in Holtsville, where energy company Savion recently received state approval to place a 110-megawatt battery on the south service road of the Long Island Expressway. Local school district officials, lawmakers and residents have raised red flags about the battery. Two heated public meetings last week will be followed by another on Wednesday at Brookhaven Town Hall, where residents will call for town officials to declare a moratorium on the devices, just as Southampton and Southold have.

Ben Caccavale, who owns two homes on Morris Avenue, said he’s never been contacted by the power developer or the state, despite their months of planning and the recent Public Service Commission approval.

“It’s just so frustrating,” he said last week, noting the decades of battles he and his forebears have fought against a National Grid liquified natural-gas plant and Northville fuel depot, more recently a wind-farm cable. “We live with this. But the battery is like lighting a fuse.”

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.