Pratt County approves three agreements for battery energy storage project

The Pratt County Commission voted to approve three agreements tied to a proposed battery energy storage project: a contribution agreement, a decommissioning agreement and a road use and maintenance agreement. The motion to approve the three documents carried after a second.

Chairman Trile said the documents had been reviewed and presented to the board before the vote. "I'm going to make a motion that we sign the contribution agreement, the decommissioning agreement, and the road use and maintenance agreement," the chair said before commissioners voted to carry the motion. Members then discussed whether parts of the repowering work would affect a 10‑year tax exemption for equipment and agreed to request follow‑up analysis from the state and the county appraiser.

Board members noted that equipment elements may be treated item-by-item for tax-exemption purposes and that some components could remain under a 10-year exemption while others may become taxable thereafter. The commission asked staff to obtain written guidance from the state tax authority and the appraiser to clarify which components would remain exempt and which would not.

Next steps include circulating the executed agreements once signatures are obtained and scheduling an informal meeting with construction and battery teams to coordinate onboarding and billing issues encountered on past projects.