Boston council hearing on battery storage draws technical panel and neighborhood alarm over Brighton site

Boston City Council members and a panel of state regulators, standards experts and industry representatives held a hearing March 25 to review the technical, regulatory and public-safety issues around battery energy storage systems (BESS). The session included officials from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Public Utilities siting division, ISO New England, the National Fire Protection Association and city agencies, and drew prolonged public testimony from Brighton neighbors opposed to a proposed facility at 35 Electric Ave.

The hearing was intended to explain how BESS fit into Massachusetts’ clean-energy plans and new permitting rules enacted in the 2024 Grid Equity Act, and to surface community concerns about fire safety, air impacts and local evacuation logistics.

State undersecretary of energy Michael Judge told the committee that energy storage is central to the state’s legally binding greenhouse-gas reductions. “These are not goals, they’re not targets, they’re requirements,” Judge said, citing the Global Warming Solutions Act and subsequent climate laws. Governor and state officials have concluded that storage will be needed at scale to integrate renewables, manage peak load and support reliability.

Panelists outlined how the Grid Equity Act changes the siting landscape. Andy Grain, director of the DPU siting division, said the act divides projects by size: local consolidated…