Calif. battery storage facility fire a key focus of Brookhaven forum

Discussion about a still-smoldering fire at the nation's largest battery-energy storage plant in California took up much of the oxygen at a forum on utility-scale batteries in Selden on Tuesday night. 

The event, hosted by Brookhaven Town, which has eight separate battery storage plants proposed, from Medford to Shoreham, was aimed at curtailing "misinformation" that town supervisor Dan Panico said has circulated on social media about the facilities since the town began receiving application for the projects over the past several years.

Brookhaven, which is hosting construction for a 924-megawatt offshore wind farm, has a special zoning district for battery plants, and developers have begun meeting with residents on proposals that could include some of the state's largest. Unlike most Long Island towns, Brookhaven doesn't have a moratorium on construction of the facilities. 

"No one here is here for the purpose of selling you anything," Panico told a crowd of around 200 at Suffolk County Community College in Selden. "We want to give you objective information." 

His panel of experts included the town's chief marshal, a Stony Brook professor, a PSEG official and a town attorney. 

Most of the questions, which were selected and read by Panico, were fielded by Paul Rogers, a retired FDNY lieutenant who is founding principal of Energy Safety Response Group, a fire safety consultant. The organization has contracts with several of the battery storage companies seeking to build facilities on Long Island, and across the country, Rogers acknowledged after the meeting. 

Rogers spoke of New York State's efforts to bulk up fire safety codes in the wake of three fires at plants across the state, including in East Hampton, in 2023. Codes under consideration include requiring independent peer review of project plans before, CCTV monitoring and annual inspections.

Developers have proposed eight sites for batteries in Brookhaven, including in Holtsville, Shoreham, Setauket/East Setauket, Port Jefferson Station, Patchogue, Medford, Yaphank and Bellport, Newsday has reported. The Patchogue unit on Brookhaven Town property on North Ocean Avenue is already under construction.

Most of the early questions during the forum dealt with a fire at a battery storage facility at Moss Landing in Monterey, California, which destroyed a large portion of a 750-megawatt battery complex near a natural gas power plant. 

The fire, the cause of which remains under investigation, broke out last Thursday and continued to smolder through the weekend into Wednesday, according to the San Jose Mercury News, which reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for an investigation of the blaze. About 1,200 people were evacuated after a column of fire sent smoke into nearby communities, and Highway 1 was closed until Sunday. Nearby schools were closed Friday.

Rogers said he believed the outmoded design of the Moss Landing plant, which has had three previous fires, may have contributed to the blaze. 

"It's a campus with a lot of battery-energy storage systems there," he said. The building that contained the batteries was "nothing more than just open racks inside of a building" which was designed in 2017 when "codes were not mature." 

"Codes have gotten so much more robust," Rogers said, and new facilities are in enclosed and separated containers to limit the spread of fire. 

Vistra Energy spokeswoman Meranda Cohn said the site had "some small pockets of smoldering" Tuesday but "no active flame." 

"The condition at the site is contained, and the work of the response team has been successful in improving the situation," she said in an email.

But audience members, some frustrated by the format that didn't allow them to speak, attempted to call questions to the podium but were rebuffed by Panico. 

"How can we know how to ask a question if we didn't know what the presentation was going to be?" one person called. 

Concerns about fire and smoke took up most of the meeting, with the Brookhaven chief fire marshal, Christopher Mehrman, telling residents exposure to airborne toxins "at higher levels is dangerous. It can happen. but we need to remember that there is a lot more air mixing in and diluting what's coming out." 

Rogers read the results of air tests by the Environmental Protection Agency and outside experts said the site and surrounding area do not pose a risk to the public. 

He said he advises against evacuations during such events, even through 1,200 were ordered to leave their homes in and around Moss Landing in the early hours of the blaze.

"Evacuations are a very difficult thing to do," he said. "We always, always try to do a shelter in place." 

Gabrielle Piazza, a resident who submitted questions but didn't attend the session, said she wanted to know, "Is the town prepared for a Moss Landing situation?" She lives near a proposed 110-megawatt plant in Holtsville, which is just blocks from a natural-gas fired power plant, a gas plant and oil storage tanks. "Why would we exponentially increase the risk locating a 110-megawatt facility near a combustible gas storage facility?"

For communities outside Brookhaven, the Moss Landing fire was "another wake-up call," said George Pombar, president of the Glen Head-Glenwood Landing Civic Council, which is opposing a large battery facility in Glenwood Landing. Given the size of Moss Landing, he said, "You would think they would be prepared. They weren't." 

The Electric Power Research Institute keeps a global database of failures at battery facilities, a figure that totals more than 90, including Moss Landing. Battery advocates say the number of fires has been reduced in the past several years.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.