Brookhaven puts more battery storage facilities on hold pending state fire codes

Even as two battery-energy storage plants are under construction in Brookhaven, Town Supervisor Dan Panico said the town won’t approve any additional batteries until New York State releases and approves new fire safety code standards for the facilities.

He also raised new questions about whether up to six other plants proposed for the town could be completed given what he said were conflicting signals from Washington, Albany and the Long Island Power Authority. 

Developers have proposed at least eight battery storage plants in Brookhaven Town, Newsday has reported, from Bellport and Patchogue to Setauket, Holtsville and Medford. LIPA has proposed a separate facility for Shoreham.

In an interview Friday, Panico, a Republican, said a range of factors is combining to raise uncertainties about all but the smaller Patchogue plant on North Ocean Avenue and a larger Holtsville site just south of the Long Island Expressway thatrecently began preconstruction work. Residents across Brookhaven have coalesced in opposition to nearly all the sites. 

"Given the uncertainty from the federal government and the chaos from our state government, I would say the only certainties right now seem to be the Holtsville location and the small [plant] in Patchogue," Panico said.

He pointed to the need for new safety codes to be issued by the state, which are expected out this summer, as the primary reason the town won’t green light projects beyond those already moving forward.

"We’re not advancing any applications toward hearings, because we’re still waiting for the latest iteration of the state building and fire prevention code guidance that’s supposed to be coming out early this summer," he said. "That’s a point that we want to make explicit to everyone in the town of Brookhaven."

Another project proposed in East Yaphank appears to have been withdrawn because of escalating costs tied to grid connections for the project, Panico said, referring to the site originally slated for William Floyd Parkway and the Long Island Expressway.

However, in a statement, energy storage provider  Savion’s senior development manager Camille Kaynor said the Yaphank project, which she noted is "developed and permitted on land that Savion owns," is "still actively in development." 

Kaynor also said the Holtsville project was undergoing "limited pre-construction" work, but said further construction activities "are not anticipated until later this year." The Holtsville plant is expected to be in operation by the end of 2026, she said, and that facility is "designed to adhere" to the newly proposed state fire code recommendations.

Savion is owned by energy giant, Shell.

Other sites also could face challenges. Panico said the need for a zoning change for part of a 4.5-acre proposed battery plant on Old Town Road in Setauket could make approving that facility problematic for the town board. A small portion of the site is zoned residential, while the rest conforms to the light industrial zone.

"That’s an issue that may prove difficult for that application," Panico said. "It’s prudent and best to seek to locate these plants where appropriate, but also where zoned correctly."

Work has been ongoing at the smaller Patchogue battery facility on town-owned land on North Ocean Avenue. Panico said the 1.9-megawatt size is equivalent to about 13 Tesla Cyber Trucks. Neighbors have been strongly opposed to the plant, which abuts homes, a funeral home and a church, but work has continued since earlier this month.

Panico said he’s been disappointed that the state and LIPA have not done more to help educate citizens about battery energy storage, and to smooth the interconnection process. He said he’s been disappointed by cost escalations that have led some developers to stall or withdraw projects. One project was hit with $25 million in extra costs, he said. 

"When you look at the overall potential development picture, only a company as large as Shell and Savion could absorb this chaotic type of pricing schedule," Panico said.

Those mixed pricing signals, combined with delays in advancing new fire safety codes and failure to publicly support the need for the projects, has made the town’s work difficult, Panico said. Brookhaven won’t approve any site plan using the existing state fire safety codes. New codes were proposed in 2023 following fires at three battery plants across the state in that year. 

"If New York State keeps this up they’ll never achieve that which they say we need," Panico said of the state’s plan for 6,000 megawatts of battery storage by 2035. "They’re not going to cast as wide a net as they potentially could in the development community because who in their right mind would want to do business in New York State" under those conditions.

A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul didn’t respond to a request for comment.

LIPA in a statement noted that it’s "actively investing in battery energy storage," calling it a "critical component to pair with intermittent renewable energy resources like solar and wind as New York State transitions to an affordable, cleaner, and more resilient electric grid."

LIPA said safety is a "top priority" as it expands storage capacity, including a proposed 50-megawatt battery at the former Shoreham nuclear plant and another 79-megawatt battery plant in Hauppauge.

"LIPA expects its partners to follow rigorous industry best practices and state-of-the-art fire prevention and monitoring technologies to ensure that battery storage systems operate safely and reliably," the utility said, and that its projects will "meet or exceed strict safety and environmental standards."

Panico first expressed his frustration about lack of critical support for the battery facilities at an environmental roundtable hosted Friday by Republican State Sen. Anthony Palumbo in Riverhead.

Brookhaven has been supportive of green energy projects going back to former Supervisor Ed Romaine’s term. Romaine, a Republican, is now Suffolk County executive, and spoke of the difficulty Brookhaven faces going it alone on battery storage. East Hampton Town, which hosts two batteries, is, like Brookhaven, one of the few very Long Island towns without a moratorium on batteries. Hempstead this week put a yearlong moratorium on battery storage.

"They want the renewable energy, but they don’t want the battery storage," Romaine said in an interview after a regional roundtable Thursday. "The only town that’s shown the courage is Brookhaven because they’re trying to do something the other towns don’t even want to look at, and the state is saying, 'Don’t look at us.' Yeah, but you're asking us to do renewable energy, and to do that you need battery storage."

Panico confirmed the 110-megawatt Holtsville plant on the South Service Road of the Long Island Expressway near the Island 16 movie theater has begun preliminary construction work. Nearby residents aren’t happy.

"There are dumpsters on site and they’re taking down trees," said Ben Caccavale, who lives a few hundred feet from the facility and has protested against it. "I’m very unhappy. Who’s going to buy my house?" he added. "All I can hope for is that [President] Trump comes in and dismantles the whole system."

Trump has already hit the brakes on wind-energy projects that would supply their excess power to the batteries.

Panico said the Holtsville site is "one where you can make the reasonable argument that it is a good site for battery energy storage," given nearby industries such as a natural gas plant, a power plant and a LIPA substation. He said the town would require that the Holtsville battery plant adhere to the new fire safety codes.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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