[Massplanners] Battery Energy Storage Systems

[Sarah Raposa]

Hi - I'm on the Medway PB and can confirm it's very detailed and technical.
We don't have a municipal electric department so we're dealing with at
least one applicant that went directly to the Energy Facilities Siting
Board for approval for a 250MW BESS which caused great public concern (all
documented on the Town's website
<https://www.townofmedway.org/planning-economic-development-board/pages/battery-energy-storage-systems-bess>).
It's been a saga; context matters!
Ironically, as the planner in Mansfield (with a municipal electric
department) we're having preliminary internal conversations about BESS and
the tone is very different.

--
*Sarah L. Raposa, AICP*

Director of Planning & Development

Mansfield, MA

sraposa at mansfieldma.com | 508.851.6457


On Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 3:38 PM Carolyn Britt via MassPlanners <
massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:

> All,
>
> A week or two ago a few of you posted on the Listserve about adopting
> the Medway zoning by-law for Battery Energy Storage. I read over the
> by-law and discussed it with the manager of the Ipswich Electric light
> Department. We discussed the storage system currently in development by
> the ELD and also other potential sites in town that might be developed
> for storage. There were few.
>
> This by-law seems very detailed and in some cases excessive, at least
> for our Municipal Light Plant community. The replacement of cut
> vegetation on site seems extraordinary - where else do we have that
> requirement? While it seems like a good idea, why don't we require this
> for all developments - residential or commercial? It seems like this is
> pressing hard on an important way out of the mess we have made.
>
> Home energy storage systems seem to be generally below the threshold for
> Tier 1. With our ELD being the most likely developer, most of the
> provisions can be included in a Purchase Power Agreement with the
> provider, and the land lease to the provider. Certainly the
> commissioning and decommissioning plans and requirements are key.
>
> I am curious to ask - for the communities that have adopted this by-law,
> why did you do it? Did you have a proposal in your town that you were
> anticipating, for a utility or a business or non-profit, or did you
> adopt  it to be ready should a project arise? What did you think about
> the provisions? Did any seem excessive?
>
> In discussion with the ELD Director, I think we agreed that only a minor
> change to our use regulations to add storage to the line that allows
> municipal power plants, wind turbines, etc. and leave the rest of it to
> state law and legal agreements with providers.
>
> Thank you for making this by-law available, and I would like to hear
> from those of you who have adopted it.
>
> Carolyn Britt,Member, Ipswich Planning Board
>
> 1 Shagbark Woods
>
> Ipswich, MA 01938
>
> 978-356-9881 (landline) or 978-317-2145 (cell)
>
>
> --
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>
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