County Plan Commission discusses smaller battery energy storage system for Wabash Valley Power

Last month the newly appointed County Plan Director Nicholas Witwer and County Commissioner Stan Klotz updated Plan Commission members for a presentation about Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) with representatives of Wabash Valley Power and Marshall County REMC in relation of the county battery storage systems.

Witwer said the meeting will help in drafting an ordinance for battery storage in the county.  He said, “While this is still kind of an unknown and maybe undesirable type of thing, it’s also something that looks like it's going to be a part of power systems moving into the future, no matter what the source of power is.”

Commissioner Klotz said looking at larger commercial or farm systems being proposed in Burr Oak are not the same as the proposed project for REMC.  He suggested breaking down the categories into four instead of three.  Klotz said the system in Burr Oak will send energy everywhere while the REMC project will have an impact for electrical user in Marshall County and he felt the concerns of the public wouldn’t be as great.  Klotz did recount and say a smaller portion of REMC’s battery storage would go onto the electrical grid, but the majority would stay in the county.     

Klotz said during the presentation that morning, the group was told that “We will see blackouts someday if we don’t do something.  It’s just a matter of time because the grid won’t be able to handle the demands going forward.”

Witwer said the REMC systems talked about and are contained at the tray level, shelf level, and container level.  They are also proposed to be built on a 2-foot-thick concrete pad.  Leaks would be contained at various levels. 

Klotz said, based on what they were shown, they aren’t the eyesore of the big 10-acre units.  They didn’t appear to be in residential areas and weren’t as scary.  Klotz also said “mini-nuclears” will be a wave of the future because they can’t power data centers

Witwer said at the presentation that they were told that in the next three to five years, data centers will take 99% of the power being generated now, so production will need to be doubled, and transmission will need to be tripled or quadrupled.

On January 2^nd, during a special meeting of the County Commissioners, they enacted 2-year moratoriums on Industrial Solar, Battery Energy Storage Systems, Data Centers, and Carbon Capture developments.

The County Plan Director said the county needs to focus on the requests they will get for 10-acre and 20-acre BESS projects, with ordinances that are appropriate to work with them.