Town turns down battery storage project

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tillsonburg council turned down a proposal to build a battery storage facility on an industrial property at 500 Highway 3, but said the decision may be revisited in the future.

Matt Kennedy of Skyline Energy, which is proposing the 30-megawatt facility designed to store excess off-grid capacity generated at night and then release it during peak demand, was back before council on Dec. 8 to ask for a support resolution. This was his third time before council, and second time asking for the support resolution. At the last meeting, he was asked to come back with more information.

Kennedy said the $70-plus million facility would unlock significant grid capacity during peak times. He explained the site chosen was on industrial land, not prime agricultural land, as directed by the province. Woodstock council recently approved a similar facility.

Given a concern about a possible fire at the site, Kennedy said the company would fully fund firefighter training. Construction of the facility would also generate many jobs.

Mayor Deb Gilvesy asked if there would be any line loss with such a facility.

“When the power is put back on the grid, there is some form of loss,” Kennedy said. “We oversize the batteries to ensure that is accounted for in our design.”

Coun. Chris Parker said he visited an existing battery storage facility in Haldimand County, which he noted was in a more rural setting. He noted that a generator was running constantly and asked if that was normal. Kennedy said it was not.

Coun. Kelly Spencer asked if there were any issues with the existing battery storage facilities in the province.

Kennedy said he wasn’t aware of any issues, but said most are still under development. Answering a question about health risks, he said the batteries used are lithium iron phosphate, which is a different technology from that used in cars or phones.

“It’s larger, it’s heavier, but what comes with that is it’s more stable. It’s a lot safer battery with a lot lower fire risk,” he said.

Reading a motion saying council is not in favour of the facility at the present time, Parker said he has safety concerns. Looking at the community benefit, he noted it “barely moves the needle”.

“Maybe when this technology comes on line and we see more in operation, maybe it’s something we can look at,” he said.

Beres also noted the key part of the motion is at the “present time”.

“The unknowns are scaring me for the returns on it. The key is maybe our door may be open in future years,” he said.

Interviewed later, Gilvesy also had concerns with the technology being so new.

“At this stage, there are simply too many unknowns,” she said. “ It’s important that Tillsonburg not be the first to host a project of this scale when we have the opportunity to observe real-world impacts in other communities first. This proposal also does not resolve the town’s long-term capacity issues. It may defer them for a short time, however the transformer station will still require significant upgrades regardless. For these reasons, council felt it was not in the best interest of our community to move forward with this project at this time.”