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Resident warns county of nearby 100 MW battery-storage project, urges stronger ordinances
Summary
A resident told commissioners a proposed 100-megawatt battery energy storage project seeking interconnection near Westwood Substation could create safety and decommissioning risks for Wabash Township residents and urged immediate adoption of stronger BESTS ordinances.
Kenny McClary (speaker 11), a West Lafayette resident, used public comment at the May 18 meeting to warn commissioners about an active commercial battery energy storage system (BESS) project seeking interconnection near the Westwood Substation, describing it as a 100-megawatt project and urging the county to adopt stronger ordinances to address decommissioning and safety concerns.
McClary said the planned location—near County Road 500 West and State Road 26—would put most of West Lafayette and the Purdue campus within a potential shelter-in-place zone in the event of a downwind battery fire. He told the board that the decommissioning assurance language the county recently approved closely follows Clinton County’s approach, which McClary said has proven insufficient for a project there; he urged commissioners to direct questions to Duke, the interconnection requester, and to accelerate passage of stronger BESTS (battery energy storage system) ordinances.
"This 100 megawatt project is in the grid connection approval process... It would place the equivalent of 1,200 Tesla vehicle lithium battery systems less than a half a mile from almost 200 Wabash Township homes," McClary said, urging immediate local action and offering a handout with online information about the project.
Provenance: public comment supplied by Kenny McClary appears in transcript segments beginning SEG 529 and runs through SEG 603, where he lays out the project's size, location and policy concerns.
