Batteries are more than a household staple. Utilities are using them more and more for electricity storage and to make the grid more efficient.
Utility-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, allow for generated energy to be stored in battery cells for later use.
Qingliu Wu is an associate professor in chemical and paper engineering at Western Michigan University. He says a large amount of generated electricity goes to waste during the night.
“If we can save the energy, then we can reduce that generation and the consumption of the fossil fuels, and we can solve a lot of issues for this. So, we need the battery energy storage technologies,” Wu said.
BESS are something we are going to hear more about. In Coldwater, a BESS is up and running. And DTE says it’s investing in eight of them.
But they’ve also met with controversy — including in Comstock Township near Kalamazoo.
'I don't agree with the battery plant'
Last year Comstock considered a BESS proposal from a Danish company called Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. They took over from Tenaska Energy, who first brought the proposal to Comstock in 2023.
Jeff Thoenes, Comstock Public Schools superintendent, spoke at a meeting in September last year.
“When we’re trying to attract students and families to our community, and to this particular school and location, the perception that it’s not safe may overcome any kind of rational safety plan,” Thoenes said of the BESS proposal.
The district is building a new STEM academy, which sits adjacent to the BESS site that CIP proposed. Thoenes said people might perceive a BESS as unsafe.
“I also want to remind you that the district and the community has invested not only $32 million for this new facility but $18 million for the building just across the way. That’s $50 million already invested, not pending,” Thoenes said.
Joann Meeker is a Comstock resident who spoke during another September meeting last year. She was worried about more than a perception of danger.
“I don’t agree with battery plant at all. If that caught fire, our children would be hurt, even killed. They will not get out of that building fast enough,” Meeker said.
Battery safety
Paul Pancella is a physics professor at WMU. He noted that BESS facilities use lithium-ion batteries.
“Depending on how they were manufactured, if in some cases there were defects in manufacture that led to fires, there have been fires with lithium batteries. And if you get thermal runaway, it can be difficult to put out the fire,” Pancella said.
But Pancella adds, fires are unlikely with the current technology. He notes these batteries have been used in laptops and electric vehicles for many years.
“We now have, you know, millions of electric vehicles on the road that don’t routinely catch fire,” Pancella said.
If you were to go to a BESS, you would most likely see large rectangular containers. In them, depending on the size of the BESS, it could hold hundred or thousands of batteries.
Data centers and BESS can look similar. Pancella explains both have power running in.
“In the BESS case, B-E-S-S case, it would also have power cables running out,” Pancella said.
Will Comstock get a BESS?
Although there was opposition to the BESS proposal in Comstock, the decision was not totally in the township’s hands. A few years ago, the state adopted a law intended to promote renewable energy. It limits local units’ ability to outright reject battery storage projects. But they can set certain restrictions. That’s what Comstock ended up doing in December.
Comstock now says any BESS must have a 2,000-foot setback from building like schools, hospitals and assisted-living facilities.
Comstock Zoning Administrator Khayci Bryant said this week that a company has submitted an incomplete BESS application since the township changed its rules, but Bryant said she cannot publicly name it at this point.
