by Tom Banse, Washington State Standard
September 5, 2024
A new form of electricity supply is coming to neighborhoods in western Washington and greater Portland. Whether you like it or not may depend on how much you trust developer assurances about the safety of big rechargeable battery arrays.
Utilities and independent energy companies have proposed a slew of standalone battery energy storage systems, some of which have generated vocal pushback in the permitting process. Both supporters and opponents acknowledge that utility-scale battery storage will be needed for the Northwest to keep the lights on as a rising amount of variable renewable electricity — such as wind and solar – comes onto the grid.
The first urban, large-scale battery farms in the Northwest are on track to enter service by the end of this year in Troutdale, Oregon, and just over a year later in Arlington in Snohomish County. Energy developers have proposed dozens more projects to follow in 2025 to 2027 from near the Canadian border in Whatcom County to the outer suburbs of Portland. Transmission planners at Puget Sound Energy alone have 15 to 20 interconnection requests for major battery storage projects in their queue for evaluation.
“The region is already at risk for blackouts and brownouts,” Tommy Nelson, lead project developer for Nebraska-based energy company Tenaska, told a capacity crowd in Sedro-Woolley that came to a public hearing last month. “This is going to be a backstop for a region such as this.”
Tenaska proposed to place eight acres of batteries on an unsown field on the outskirts of the Skagit Valley town. Nelson said the screened-off aisles of massive batteries would be a good neighbor because they would be quiet, low-impact and cause no commute traffic when operating.
“I like to tell people when they try to conceptualize what these look like, it’s like a self-storage facility,” Nelson said about the roughly $250 million project.
Representatives of organized labor who stand to get construction jobs were, well, organized in giving early endorsements to the battery storage surge. They said the facilities are vital to ensure grid stability while the state strives to reach its climate goals.
“If we’re going to be relying on more renewable energy, then we need a way to store energy so that it can be redistributed during critical periods,” said Robert McCloud, a field agent for the Laborers’ International Union, Local 292, out of Everett.
But many people in the Sedro-Woolley audience were unconvinced, judging from their body language – crossed arms and frowning faces aplenty – at the hearing convened by the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. The scene was repeated on Wednesday night at the Sedro-Woolley City Council during an informational meeting about the proposed Tenaska battery farm. The city council doesn’t have permitting jurisdiction, but worried residents packed the council chambers anyway to tell Tenaska’s representatives to take their project and go away.
The battery skeptics’ arguments echoed the criticisms heard in suburban King County communities where Tenaska and other developers have applied to place battery farms next to a school in one case (near Covington), in between subdivisions in another (Renton), and by wetlands in a third case (Auburn). A common refrain is that the banks of tightly packed lithium-ion batteries present an unacceptable risk of catching fire, which neighbors fear could send toxic smoke drifting overhead and then wash fish-killing runoff into nearby creeks when responders or the rain douse the flames.
“The energy industry downplays the occurrences of these fires, possibly because it would negatively affect profits. But these fires do happen and keep happening regularly even with modern equipment and technology,” said Matt Phillips, a parent and professional firefighter who lives in Skagit County. Skagit County resident Matt Phillips registers his objections to a proposed large-scale battery farm east of Sedro-Woolley at a packed public hearing on August 13. (Courtesy of EFSEC via TVW)
Developers of battery farms consistently use the term “rare” to describe the occurrence of battery fires and blame first-generation systems that they say have since been improved. In response, critics routinely link to a running list of utility-scale battery storage failures maintained by the Electric Power Research Institute.
The EPRI database lists multiple fires in California and New York over the past year and more overseas. But the database is now topped with the caveat that the number of commercial battery farms has increased dramatically worldwide in the past few years. EPRI said that means the overall rate of incidents is falling sharply even though fires keep happening among the much enlarged fleet of facilities.
A number of young companies in the battery materials business are working on alternative battery chemistry in hopes of reducing fire risk. Venture capital firms are backing sodium-ion battery startups for this reason as well as iron flow batteries, to name two trendy prospects.
The how and why of battery energy storage
A standalone battery farm basically operates like a giant rechargeable battery. The owner charges the field of batteries at off-peak times or on sunny, windy days when renewable energy is overproducing. Then when the sun sets, the wind calms and/or demand spikes, the operator sends the juice back onto the grid. In a way, it’s like the old stock market maxim: buy low, sell high.
Puget Sound Energy and Portland General Electric have pointedly solicited battery energy storage proposals in the last couple years. The first utility-scale battery storage systems in the Northwest were co-located with solar and wind farms. That is less controversial and is continuing, but exposes the utilities to long-distance transmission bottlenecks. Hence, the newfound push for standalone battery farms nearer to cities, which lessens the need to build more cross-state transmission.
“Battery energy storage systems help us to meet Washington’s clean energy goals,” said PSE spokeswoman Melanie Coon via email. “They are critical to maintaining grid reliability when demand surges during summer heat waves and cold snaps. They help to accelerate the transition to clean energy and allow us to get the most value from wind and solar energy.”
The standalone battery storage business is also taking off because the price of batteries is falling and the installations are now eligible for valuable federal tax credits thanks to the Biden administration’s climate and energy package passed by Congress in 2022.
The many utility-scale battery farms in the interconnection queue in the Pacific Northwest range from 75 to 250-megawatts in capacity. To put that in layperson’s terms, Nelson said Tenaska’s proposed 200-megawatt battery farm in Skagit County could power about 100,000 homes for eight hours.
Location, location, location
Skagit County offers an early taste at how the fate of battery farm proposals may boil down to location more than anything else. While the aforementioned Tenaska project near Sedro-Woolley is generating lots of static, another developer is charging through the county’s permitting process with minimal resistance. NextEra Energy Resources applied to build a 200-megawatt battery storage system on a vacant lot behind the Sierra Pacific lumber mill west of Mount Vernon
County Commissioner Lisa Janicki signed on to a unanimous statement of the county commission condemning the Tenaska plans for battery storage on land zoned for agriculture next to a salmon-bearing creek. Yet, she said she favors the other company’s plans to build the same kind of energy infrastructure less than 13 miles away.
“Putting an industrial type project in a place that is already zoned heavy industry is really consistent,” Janicki said in an interview. “It makes sense to a common person that you would put an industrial project in industrial zoning.”
That pattern is repeating elsewhere in Washington. Florida-based BrightNight Power is seemingly gliding through the permitting process in Sumner with a 200MW lithium-ion battery storage array proposed in a light industrial district dominated by warehouses. Meanwhile, barely seven miles away, Texas-based Plus Power got immediate pushback when the City of Auburn published a notice of application to plop 100-megawatts worth of batteries next to a creek across from the Emerald Downs horse racing track.
NextEra Energy Resources, the developer of the uncontroversial Troutdale and Mount Vernon battery storage projects, will be the guinea pig to test Whatcom County’s tightened zoning rules, which limit large-scale battery energy storage to parcels zoned industrial or rural. NextEra Energy was scheduled to attend a pre-application meeting this week with the county planning department to discuss a proposed 100-megawatt battery farm on property near unincorporated Custer, which is zoned for no more than one house per 5 rural acres.
Another interesting test could come soon if Seattle City Light proceeds with a project on the downtown waterfront. The municipal utility recently received a $500,000 state grant to conduct detailed design for a potential 10 to 35-megawatt battery energy storage system. It would serve plug-in hybrid electric ferry charging and provide electricity grid support for the waterfront area.
Utilities and third-party developers say these big energy storage projects need to be built within a mile of a substation for maximum efficiency, which limits the location options.
Battery farms subjected to permitting cross-currents
The Oregon and Washington legislatures have put out the welcome mat for battery farms by adding an alternative permitting pathway through state government for developers who foresee regulatory obstacles at the local level. Tenaska is the first energy company to take advantage by seeking to permit its proposed Goldeneye battery farm in Skagit County through the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. The EFSEC panel makes a recommendation to Washington’s governor, who has the final say and can override what might otherwise be a rejection if left to county or city officials.
“I got the impression that they’re trying to cram this through before Governor Inslee leaves,” a displeased Janicki said. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, a clean energy champion, leaves office after three terms next January.
In contrast to state-level policymakers, some local jurisdictions in Washington are slamming the brakes on this oncoming wave of unfamiliar energy infrastructure. The Covington, Black Diamond and Renton city councils and the Yakima and Benton county commissions passed six-month or one-year moratoriums on processing battery energy storage permits to give themselves time to formulate tighter siting and safety rules.
The wariness is far from universal though. Oregon’s first standalone, large-scale battery energy storage projects in Troutdale, Hillsboro and North Portland were permitted by city planning departments, who in some cases did not even require a public hearing. When NextEra Energy’s 200MW Troutdale project for PGE comes on line at the end of this year, it will be the biggest battery farm operating in the Northwest. But at the rate things are going, it will only hold that crown temporarily.
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