Residents and advocates urge battery hybridization at Bayon Energy Center renewal hearing

Bayon Energy Center faced sustained calls from residents and environmental advocates to add battery storage and reduce reliance on its ten simple-cycle turbines during a public environmental justice hearing convened by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The hearing, held to review the plant’s Title V five-year renewal and the facility’s environmental justice impact statement (EJIS), featured presentations by the company’s presenter and extended public comment from community groups, clean-energy advocates and attorneys. Commenters urged the Department to impose stronger conditions on the renewal, including requiring hybridization of combustion units with battery storage.

Why it matters: Speakers said Bayon sits in an overburdened community (the EJIS screening identifies the local block group as above the regulatory threshold for minority population) and that local emissions—particularly hazardous air pollutants—pose ongoing health risks. Several presenters argued that adding batteries could significantly reduce short-duration turbine operation and associated local pollution.

The facility and the EJIS The hearing record opened with the facility presentation in which Bayon’s representative summarized the EJIS and operations. The presenter described BEC as a peaking facility with 10 natural-gas-fired simple-cycle turbines, two black-start diesel generators, about 15 staff on site and a typical annual capacity factor of roughly 15 percent. He also said the applicant is planning a battery energy storage installation described in the presentation as a 50-megawatt / 200-megawatt-hour system targeted for commissioning in 2027.

Public concerns and technical claims Multiple commenters said the plant disproportionately burdens adjacent communities and urged more aggressive action. Kelly Bard of the Staten Island Urban Center, who also identified herself as representing the Staten Island Environmental Justice Coalition, told the hearing that "these communities are consistently overburdened with pollution" and urged the Department to "rectify these emissions" and place conditions on the permit to reduce reliance on gas-fired turbines.

Attorneys and advocacy groups pressed technical points. One attorney who identified only himself as Smith urged the plant to "hybridize as much as possible" and reduce emissions to protect surrounding communities. Speakers repeatedly questioned whether commonly used emissions-estimation methods (AP‑42-based factors) understate some hazardous pollutants from simple-cycle turbines and asked how and how often emissions and wastewater discharges are monitored.

Clean Energy Group presentation Abby Romanan, project director at Clean Energy Group, presented an analysis of BEC’s operating patterns and recommended hybridization measures. She told the hearing that an 8‑ to 12‑hour battery tied to an individual combustion unit could replace a majority of that unit’s shorter operating events and reduce the unit’s local emissions; Romanan said a single 8‑hour battery could reduce a unit’s average SO2 by up to about 19% and CO2/NOx by up to 24% in certain modeled scenarios, and that incremental hybridization would increase those benefits across the plant.

Compliance history and controls Bayon’s presenter noted the plant uses SCR and CO catalysts and asserted the facility meets state-of-the-art control technology. He disclosed one brief compliance event a few years earlier when a black-start diesel generator and a combustion turbine briefly operated at the same time; staff said the overlap was noticed and stopped within about two minutes. He also said facility-wide risk modeling of hazardous air pollutants was below department thresholds, and that the EJIS and public-notice process were carried out and posted on the New Jersey D website.

What commenters asked regulators to do Advocates asked the Department to impose a special condition requiring hybridization of one or more turbines; to scrutinize emissions factors and monitoring methods (particularly for hazardous air pollutants such as formaldehyde and ammonia); and to set conditions that ensure batteries are called upon before combustion units so the turbines operate only for longer-duration events. Multiple commenters asked the Department to require clearer monitoring, reporting and enforceable timelines for conversions to storage.

Next steps Hearing officials said the environmental-justice comment period for the EJIS remains open through the stated deadline (the presenter cited June 30) and that written comments may be submitted to info@tigerjenco.com and will be posted with responses on the Department website. The public comment period on other parts of permitting will occur later when the draft permit is posted, the presenter said. The hearing closed after additional public remarks and no formal action was taken at the meeting.

Context and caveats The assertions about emissions ranking and specific percentage reductions were made by commenters and advocacy groups during public comment and in Clean Energy Group’s analysis; they are presented here as the speakers’ claims. Bayon’s presenter asserted that the facility meets applicable permit limits and that modeling showed risks below department thresholds; those statements are the facility’s position in the record. The Department will consider written comments and the EJIS in its permit review process.