The Southampton Town Board has scheduled a public hearing for Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. on major changes to its town codes regarding Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), after massive public backlash last year against a proposed 100 megawatt BESS project proposed not far from the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays.
The board has scheduled the public hearing just in advance of the expected end of a moratorium on consideration of BESS systems on Feb. 13, 2025. That moratorium has been in place since mid-2023, as New York State has been working to revamp its code guidelines for battery storage in the wake of three 2023 fires at BESS sites throughout the state, including one in East Hampton.
Pictured Above: The proposed site of the Canal BESS project, which led Southampton Town to enact a moratorium on battery storage systems in 2023.
Under Southampton’s proposed new regulations, BESS systems large enough to be considered Tier 2 and Tier 3 under the new code would be prohibited in residential areas, and stand-alone BESS systems would be capped at 5 megawatts, while systems tied to a solar array could be rated no greater than 20 megawatts.
Residents would still be able to install small, household-type systems that produce between 20 and 80 kilowatt-hours of electricity, Southampton Town Planning & Development Administrator Janice Scherer told the Southampton Town Board as they discussed the proposed changes at their Jan. 9 work session, and businesses that want to install an small accessory system would also be able to do so.
“Tier 1” projects between 80 kwh and 600 kwh would be reviewed by the town planning board,under the proposed code..
Developers of Tier 2 systems, between 600 kilowatts and 5 megawatts, would apply for a special exception use permit from the town planning board, and could only put BESS systems on sites in light industrial zoning districts.
Tier 3 systems, between 5 and 19 megawatts, would require a permit administered by the town board, and would only be allowed in areas the town board deems “Renewable Energy Overlay Districts.”
Town Planner Seth Race said 16 recommendations by the New York State Interagency Fire Safety Working Group, which are expected to become state code “at some point,” have been incorporated into town code, including mandatory peer review of applications by experts in the industry who do not have a financial stake in the project.
The New York State Energy Research Development Agency is compiling a list of “qualified, certified individuals that should be able to assist the town,” he added.
The fee for this consulting work would be paid for by the applicant, he added.
The town code would also prohibit the systems within 500 feet of a coastal evacuation route and within 300 feet of an “occupied community building,” a state definition that includes schools, hospitals, correctional facilities, colleges and other public buildings.
“Renewable Energy Overlay Districts” could be in areas like pre-existing sand mines and brownfield sites.
“All of these places are in weirdly, wrongly zoned residential areas,” said Ms. Scherer, adding that these uses predate zoning and are often nowhere near residential areas. She said it makes no sense to do a blanket rezoning of such areas without a proposal from an energy developer, but with an overlay district the town could consider allowing the use on a case-by-case basis when a developer proposes a project.
“Then you get to consider whether you even want to entertain it,” she said.
Both Tier 2 and Tier 3 systems would be considered “Type I Actions” under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, requiring extensive environmental review.
Town Board members, including Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, a longtime BESS critic, said they’re comfortable with the changes as the board finalized the code language at its Jan. 16 work session.
Ms. McNamara pointed out that the town had saved $60,000 in consulting fees by doing the work in-house.
“This went through organically. We did a ton of research on this and saved taxpayers a tone of money, and we did this the way people wanted it done,” she said. “I haven’t gotten any negative feedback on this at all.”
She added that she would like to see the public hearing held open for an evening meeting — the next evening town board meeting would be on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m.
“There’s more moratoria out there than there is code. We’re well ahead of the curve,” said Mr. Race, the town planner. “We’re open to criticism and we want feedback.”
Here’s the text of the code changes.
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