Energy and fire-safety experts are on board with building new battery storage sites across the Town of Brookhaven and greater Long Island.

The bulk Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) store electricity from the power grid for use during high-demand peaks or low-supply emergencies, but some residents have raised safety concerns after a five-megawatt lithium-ion battery site in East Hampton caught fire last year.

However, experts like Marguerite Wells, the executive director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY), believes the perceived risk these sites pose is far greater than the actual risk in implementing them.

“A lot of houses are right next to the local gas station. That’s a huge fire risk, but people just are sort of used to it,” Wells said. “These battery energy storage systems are designed to contain a fire. There are already built-in mechanisms and systems to prevent fire from expanding to adjacent battery cells.”

The battery cells are arranged in racks located inside a shipping container-sized unit. A BESS site could have up to dozens of these units and store a few hours’ to days’ worth of energy for the adjacent power grid.

Analysis from the state-level Fire Safety Working Group on Emergency Response also determined that there were “no harmful levels of toxins detected at sites of battery storage fires” after monitoring air and soil samples across affected sites like East Hampton last year.

As Long Island transitions more into solar and wind energy, Wells says the BESS sites will be critical on cloudy or non-windy days when certain renewable energy sources are difficult to capture.

However, some areas like the Town of Babylon are considering moratoriums on BESS construction in response to residential safety concerns.

The Town of Brookhaven is more receptive to battery energy sites, which includes a 110-megawatt facility in Holtsville south of the Long Island Expressway on Morris Avenue. Sachem Central School District sued the developer and state alleging the site is too large to be near its schools in case of a fire.

Another site on Horseblock Road in Medford also faced criticism during a July meeting, but recent updates to the state fire codes provide more precautionary measures and monitoring for BESS sites.

Retired FDNY Lt. and co-founder of Energy Safety Response Group, Paul Rogers, worked on updating the fire code and believes it provides detailed steps for BESS sites and municipalities to minimize danger.

“We significantly reduced the risk from an event taking place, and all of that regulation and infrastructure in the fire code and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards are in place, as long as we have people that are compliant to it,” Rogers said.

The codes specify that jurisdictions that control the sites must have an independent peer review process, along with mandating industry specialists perform inspections assessing a site’s setup, cleanliness, and alarms.

Regular tests are also run at sites to simulate a fire or other system failure. The fire safety experts will fail a few neighboring cells and ensure the failure doesn’t spread outside of its area in the unit.

Rogers said these enhancements to the fire code made in July will teach municipalities that approve or oversee BESS sites how to keep them safe with the help of industry specialists.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) believes that battery storage sites will allow the state to rely less on fossil fuel power plants and improve air quality and public health.

To Sammy Chu, CEO of Edgewise Energy and MTA board member, the most significant impact battery energy storage facilities will have on Long Islanders is mitigating the island’s contribution to climate change and response to disasters.

“I lived through Sandy. We just recently saw the devastation that was left by Helene and Milton. We’re only going to see more of these storms,” Chu said. “The faster we move forward, the greater impact we have… If we’re delayed a year, that lost year is compounded over time and is a safety issue in and of itself.”