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Amherst County hears safety, siting and revenue questions on proposed battery energy storage sites
Summary
At a joint session with the planning commission in May, county officials, emergency responders and private-sector experts discussed technical standards, emergency response and potential siting and revenue agreements for utility-scale battery energy storage projects; no ordinance or permit was approved.
Amherst County supervisors and members of the planning commission held a technical briefing in May on utility-scale battery energy storage systems, hearing from an industry safety consultant, an Appalachian Power representative and local public-safety officials about risks, testing standards and emergency response procedures.
The session featured Paul Rogers, a consultant with ESRG and a retired New York City firefighter, who described industry testing and code standards used to evaluate battery-energy systems and insisted on fire-service involvement in permitting and operations. “There’s a lot of remote monitoring that takes place 24/7. In the event that there is a...problem, this remote monitoring will pick it up and it will actually shut the system down,” Rogers said. He recommended site-specific emergency response plans and periodic training for local fire departments.
Why it matters: Supervisors and planning commissioners raised public-safety and environmental questions after high-profile…
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