North Hempstead OKs 1-year moratorium on battery energy storage systems

North Hempstead Town approved a yearlong moratorium on large battery storage systems Tuesday over the opposition of environmentalists who opposed the measure.

Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, a Democrat who caucuses with Republicans, introduced the proposal over the summer. A vote in August failed, and in October, the town tabled a second vote on the issue.

The measure passed 6-1 on Tuesday. Republicans Dennis Walsh, Ed Scott and David Adhami joined Democrats Christine Liu and Mariann Dalimonte, along with DeSena, in voting yes. Democrat Robert Troiano was the lone dissenter.

The storage sites complement renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, by storing the energy for future use during peak periods. While environmentalists champion the system's green energy potential, fire officials argue that municipalities should wait to allow them until the state updates its fire codes.

The batteries are powered by lithium-ion and can overheat and combust. Critics point to a May 2023 fire at an East Hampton plant that took 30 hours to contain.

“We all support clean energy, but we have to put the lives of our residents and our firefighters first,” DeSena said during the meeting.

Liu and Dalimonte said the town should form a steering committee, similar to one in Southampton Town, to develop safe protocols for the technology. 

“The moratorium can’t be in place forever,” Dalimonte said at the meeting. A committee should include members of the town attorney’s office and building and planning departments. “I’d like to have one or two council members on that committee, to make sure our code, when this moratorium is done, is safe for our community.”

Michael Uttaro, Nassau County's chief fire marshal, supported the moratorium.

“We’re not anti-BESS; we just want the code to catch up,” Uttaro said in an interview, referring to the acronym for battery energy storage systems. “There are some good fire safety standards in the works, there are some good ideas on fire suppression and protection. It’s a matter of those getting put in the codes and making sure we can make it happen.”

Several environmental activists expressed support for the facilities during the meeting.

Casey Petrashek, deputy director of politics for the New York League of Conservation Voters, said moving to clean energy is crucial for Long Island.

“We’re talking about North Hempstead today, but this is really a statewide issue,” Petrashek said in an interview. “Each of these moratoriums only delays that transition and shrinks the responsibility we have to the health of New Yorkers and the future of our planet."

During the meeting Christina Kramer, president of Protect Our Coast Long Island New York, a Long Beach group that opposes wind turbine energy, criticized the environmentalists for presenting "despicable arguments."  

She said offshore wind is "intermittent, unreliable, unaffordable, expensive and definitely an energy source we need to skip ..."

Her comments triggered a commotion in the crowd. 

"You're not from my town, why are you at my meeting?" one resident said to Kramer.

Southampton, Southold, Oyster Bay, Babylon and Huntington towns have all instituted moratoriums on the battery storage facilities. Brookhaven, meanwhile, has welcomed the facilities and does not plan to propose a similar measure, Newsday has reported. In July, state officials released plans to update safety codes for large battery-storage systems.

State officials accepted public comment on the changes through late September. 

Troiano said he considered the legislation to be “regressive.”

Troiano said he feared the moratorium would stay in effect for longer than a year. “I don’t believe it’s just a year. I believe it’s into perpetuity,” he said.

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.