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Nelson County board approves siting agreements for battery storage projects
Summary
The Nelson County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution authorizing voluntary siting agreements for two battery energy storage projects, including commitments to charitable donations and local emergency-response planning; the county administrator was authorized to sign the agreements.
The Nelson County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt Resolution R2025-79 authorizing voluntary siting agreements for two battery energy storage projects at local utility substations and giving the county administrator authority to sign the agreements.
County staff introduced the agreements as voluntary contracts allowed under Virginia state code that let applicants provide funds to the locality to mitigate project impacts. "These battery energy storage systems will benefit local CVEC customers by keeping rates down during peak usage periods," a county staff member said during the presentation. Gabby Mayer of Light Shift Energy, the project applicant, told the board the agreements include charitable donations and emergency-response commitments and asked the board for authorization to have the county administrator sign the documents.
Mayer said the siting agreements provide funds to the county to address project impacts and listed commitments that include a charitable donation at ribbon-cutting events and a requirement that the applicant develop an emergency response plan and provide training for local emergency responders. "We do work with the fire department and emergency response team prior to develop an emergency response plan," Mayer said, and noted she had shared the plan with a local responder, John Atkins.
Board members asked for clarification about whether the partnership payments were one-time or per site; Light Shift Energy said the payment is a one-time payment per project, which the board discussed as meaning there will be separate donations tied to each site. The presentation named one donation amount of $8,000 and another of $10,000 associated with the Collin and Pine River sites as presented to the board.
No members of the public spoke during the hearing. A motion to adopt Resolution R2025-79 passed on a roll-call vote with recorded affirmative votes from board members listed in the record as Alford, Ashley Lee, Park and Reed.
The board noted it will decide later which local organizations will receive the charitable donations. The county administrator was authorized to execute the siting agreements as presented.
