Community opposition mounts in Brookhaven over battery storage plans

With plans for battery-energy storage projects proposed for sites across Brookhaven Town, community groups worried about their potential impact are coalescing in opposition.

Construction of the first of at least five projects began on North Ocean Avenue in Patchogue last month, leading to a petition in opposition to the project and the reformation of a civic association to try to block it.

On Wednesday night, 18 residents who live around the proposed site discussed a range of strategies, including legal action, to oppose the project, which they feared could impact the local aquifer, home values, insurance costs and safety. The 1.9 megawatt project by Agilitas Energy is on Brookhaven Town property.

That project is perhaps the smallest being proposed in the town, which unlike others across Long Island has not declared a moratorium on battery-plant development after a fire erupted at a 5-megawatt facility in East Hampton last year. If completed, the Patchogue unit would be the first of a new generation of battery storage facilities planned for the town, the Island and across the state.

"This is going to be a fight that we as a community have to take on and join with other communities," said Patchogue resident George Bouton, who led the presentation at the North Patchogue Fire House. Residents there are reforming the Canaan Lake Civic Association to oppose the project.

Energy-storage batteries are part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s vision of a carbon-free grid to replace aging fossil-fuel plants with green-energy alternatives. Batteries would allow electric utilities to store power from sources such as offshore wind farms when use is low and production is high, such as windy winter nights. Batteries also would replace an aging generation of so-called fossil fuel-based peaker plants that produce energy during high-demand summer times.

Brookhaven officials, at a town board meeting last month, assured dozens of opponents that the developers who have applied for permits will reach out to residents in coming months to try to persuade them of their safety and the appropriateness of their locations before the town will proceed.

Among plans that have recently come to light is a facility in Medford, at the South Service Road of the Long Island Expressway adjacent to Horse Block Road and Long Island Avenue.

The Medford battery, called Horseblock Energy Storage, would be a 100-megawatt facility with a formal address on Long Island Avenue and the South Service Road. Garret Gray, an attorney representing the developer, AES, of Arlington, Virginia, in an emailed statement said AES plans to connect the battery facility to a LIPA substation at nearby Manor Road via a 138-kilovolt cable around 1,000 feet away.

Gray said the battery will be charged during the off-peak hours at night and be available for LIPA to use during the daytime peak hours.

Brett Houdek, president of the Medford Civic Association, argued that placement of the battery is wrong given its proximity to nearby homes, major roadways and schools. He's opposed to the company's plan to change the site's zoning from residential to light industrial.

"They want to put it in the middle of a residential community," said Houdek. "This is good residential property. We should be preserving residential property, and we shouldn’t be putting a battery in the middle of it." 

AES noted the proposed Medford site "already includes several industrial facilities," making the battery "consistent" with existing facilities in the area.

As for the safety of the units, Gray wrote the batteries will have 24/7 remote monitoring, built-in fire suppression systems, and coordination plans to work with local fire departments to deal with any emergencies.

Houdek noted that AES has a history of incidents at its facilities, including a large fire at its Surprise, Arizona plant in 2019 that injured several firefighters. AES said it has been operating batteries for 15 years, and experienced two incidents during its tenure, both of which "reshaped the energy storage industry’s approach to battery system design and safety."

Newsday last month reported on two proposed facilities in Setauket that drew opponents to a Brookhaven Town board meeting, where residents cited proximity to homes and concerns about potential fires. One of the two plants envisioned for East Setauket would be 375 megawatts, perhaps the largest in the state, while a second would be 65 megawatts.

Developer Savion Energy, a Shell Group company, said, "We look forward to continuing to engage with both the local community and town regarding these proposed projects."

Separately, a company called New Leaf Energy plans two adjacent battery storage units, one at 3.75 megawatts, the other at 5 megawatts, for Route 112 in Port Jefferson Station. New Leaf project developer Corina Solis said the company is planning a Dec. 17 meeting with the local civic association to discuss its plans in more depth. The two units are small enough that they do not require state approval, she said.

"We are in the application process" with the Town of Brookhaven, she said, noting the project is on an industrially zoned lot and the needed permit is for construction. She said the company will comply with the new proposed state fire standards, even if begun before the standard is in place.

Other projects are planned for Westchester, Orange and Rockland, she said. Solis said the company has plans for 50 such units around the state, and at least one other in Suffolk County, in Riverhead.

Community groups say information about the projects is trickling out too slowly and isn’t easily accessible. Neighbors around the North Ocean Avenue site said they don’t believe they were ever told of the project until a Newsday story last month.

At the meeting Wednesday in North Patchogue, Fire Commissioner Jack Blaum, who owns a home a few hundred feet from the 1.9 megawatt battery site, said he and other commissioners received some assurances about the developers’ ability to respond to emergencies, but also were left with big questions.

Should a fire get out of control, Blaum noted, it would require "thousands and thousands" of gallons of water to control, and if an internal system were to malfunction, that water could wind up in local streams, lakes and, ultimately, the Great South Bay.

The project has already begun construction in a portion of the Brookhaven lot that will house the battery containers.

The state Public Service Commission last year gave approval for another battery project, the 110-megawatt Holtsville Energy Storage facility, on a parcel that has been partly cleared at the corner of the South Service Road of the Long Island Expressway and Morris Avenue, near the Island 16 Cinema.

Ben Caccavale, who lives a few hundred feet from the site, said he continues to oppose the placement of the facility, but is at a loss for how to stop it after the state approval.

"It’s just extremely frustrating," he said. "I’ve tried to maintain the small part of my grandparent's wish and dream, and now they’re talking that away." He said he worries about evacuating in case of an incident. 

The Sachem Central School District, which filed suit in opposition to the Holtsville plant given nearby schools, recently reached a settlement agreement with the PSC and developer, Holtsville Energy Storage, that requires the plant operators to provide written certification by an independent testing facility showing that the plant is compliant with high safety standards. The district through a spokeswoman declined to comment on litigation.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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