Cheektowaga board tables proposal for battery storage facility at Superfund site

Cheektowaga Zoning Board of Appeals members voted Nov. 19 to table a request from AC Power and the property owner, Ingersoll Rand, for a use variance to install a battery energy storage system on a roughly 7-acre brownfield at 3695 Broadway.

Peter Sorgy, a project attorney for the applicant, said the planned installation would occupy about 1 acre of the site and that the company seeks a use variance because the town’s zoning code does not define or permit battery energy storage. "This use is a relatively new use, which is why it's not in your zoning code," Sorgy said, adding that the project team had previously sought and received a similar public-utility use variance for a solar project in August 2024.

Kinsey, a project representative for AC Power, described the project as "a set of batteries enclosed within weather rated containers" that would charge when power is cheap and discharge when demand — and prices — are high. Kinsey said the developer intends to use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry and layered safety systems, including in-container suppression, gas detection, and 24/7 remote monitoring. "The batteries we are suggesting are not going to be lithium ion batteries," Kinsey said. "We have a preference for lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are much safer."

Several nearby residents pressed the board on safety, emergency response and past incidents elsewhere. Debbie Scheffler, who owns nearby properties, said she was worried about training for local fire departments and the effects on property values and neighborhood quality. "These fires take hours to days to put them out," Scheffler said, describing what she’d heard and read about other battery storage fires.

Project counsel and the representative said the siting choice reflected limited suitable land in the region, that the parcel is a New York State Superfund site with institutional and engineering controls and that the developer had confined improvements to areas already remediated. The applicants noted that additional approvals would be required before construction: a town site-plan review and review by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to change uses on the Superfund site.

Board members expressed mixed views and requested more technical detail and coordinated plans with emergency responders. The board approved a motion to table the use-variance request and asked the applicant to supply additional materials and follow up at a later meeting.

What’s next: The application is tabled pending the applicant’s additional submissions, including site-plan details, evidence of consultations with the DEC and fire department training proposals.