Economic Development Committee Meeting on Battery Storage Project - December 5, 2025
Economic Development Committee Meeting on Battery Storage Project - December 5, 2025
The Economic Development Committee of the Syracuse Common Council met to discuss a proposed battery energy storage system (BESS) at 426 East Brighton Avenue. The meeting featured presentations by the developer, New Leaf Energy, fire safety experts, and the Syracuse Fire Chief. Key topics included project benefits, fire safety, code compliance, and the need for a citywide framework for such facilities. The chair decided to hold the item without a vote on Monday and indicated a future public hearing will be scheduled.
Discussion Items
- Developer Presentation (Terrence Nolan, New Leaf Energy): The project consists of two 5 MW, 4-hour lithium iron phosphate battery systems on a currently vacant lot used for dumpster storage. The site is approximately 75 feet from the nearest commercial building (ST Foreign Auto) and about half a mile from the Rock Cut substation. Benefits include: reducing reliance on the Bell Island Road peaker plant (operates only 26 hours per year) by 400 MWh; investing $1 million in 3VO safety equipment at the Rock Cut substation (accelerating upgrades otherwise funded by ratepayers); providing backup power for up to 10,000 residents for four hours; contributing to the Energy Affordability Program (up to $64/month credit for eligible residents); and generating tax revenue. The developer noted that a previous site analysis identified limited suitable parcels near substations with three-phase power. They also offered to fund an independent expert review for the city.
- Fire Safety Expert Testimony (Adam Jakobowski, Paul Rogers): They described multiple layers of protection: 24/7 off-site battery management system monitoring voltage, temperature, and current; on-site smoke, heat, and gas detectors linked to central monitoring (similar to ADT) that would dispatch the fire department; non-enterable enclosures designed to contain any fire without spreading; and extensive testing (including destructive fire testing) used to develop NFPA 855 and New York State fire codes. They cited global statistics: 81 BESS incidents from 2018–2024, with a 98% drop in incident rate over that period due to improved safety standards. No incidents have occurred at New Leaf Energy's three Westchester County installations (operational two years) or among approximately 40 installations in New York City.
- Council Questions and Concerns: Council members asked about proximity, toxic emissions, environmental impact (vegetation, noise), fire suppression, and long-term maintenance. The developer and safety experts clarified that under normal operation there are no emissions; noise is comparable to commercial HVAC; vegetation management is required by code; and in the unlikely event of a fire, the system would burn itself out with only water applied to protect exposures, and no off-site air, water, or soil impact has been observed in past incidents.
- Fire Chief's Stance (Chief Monts): The chief stated that based on the preliminary plan review, the project does not meet the current New York State Fire Code. He recommended the city establish a working group (led by Deputy Commissioner Owen Kearney of Planning and Sustainability) to study broader issues: fire risks, fire suppression capabilities, environmental hazards, land-use compatibility, and appropriate siting. He noted that other municipalities (e.g., Oswego, Yonkers) have temporarily paused new BESS applications to develop local policies. He emphasized the need for a holistic city framework before approving any such facility.
- Commissioner Michael Collins (Neighborhood and Business Development): He acknowledged the urgency due to rapid growth in Syracuse (citing multiple large housing projects, Micron, etc.) and the need to address grid capacity. He confirmed that Deputy Commissioner Kearney has begun assembling an internal working group, though no timeline was given. He agreed to include community representation in the process.
Key Outcomes
- No Vote Scheduled: The committee chair (Councilor) stated the item will be held and not voted on at the next Council meeting (Monday). A future public hearing will be scheduled to allow resident input.
- City Working Group: The administration (NBD) is forming a working group to develop a citywide policy for battery energy storage systems, including input from fire, codes, planning, engineering, water, and community representatives. No firm timeline for recommendations was provided.
- Developer's Offer: New Leaf Energy offered to fund an independent, third-party expert review for the city to help guide the siting and safety evaluation process.
- Project Status: The project remains under consideration but cannot proceed unless design changes bring it into code compliance and the city establishes a broader regulatory framework.
Meeting Transcript
Uh, sat with your uh technology here or okay. Why don't you come up here? Can you do that from here? Or I don't have quicker uh so you want to do it from over there? Is that the idea? I guess so, yeah. Okay, I'd like to welcome everybody, the economic development committee meeting. I'm joined here by Councillor The President Hudson, Councilman Majak, Councilman, and uh Councillor Panagua. And we're here to discuss the uh battery energy storage project at four twenty-sex East East Brighton Avenue. Before we get started, I know we have members of the public here. This is a public meeting. This isn't a public hearing. So this is um the reason for this meeting is for the council in its deliberations to find out if we'll pass a special permit for this. So uh for this meeting, anyways, we'll just entertain questions from the common counselors here that we'll go to the uh person who's proposed the proposal, and we have our fire chief here too, and the codes directors are here as I believe, too. Um, Jake is here. Okay. So why don't you start, Mr. North. Council, my colleague said he will he will click along. So why don't you come over here and sit right next to our fire chief here? We're based in Troy, New York, just due uh east of here. Um we are here to talk about a proposal for a battery energy storage system on four twenty-six East Brighton. Uh we have our subject, all of our subject matter experts, including our fire safety uh personnel. Um I could ask those folks just to introduce themselves, beginning with my colleague Mike Schauford. Mike Schaffer, uh project. I'm Jack Bowski. I'm a team along with energy response group. Uh okay, thank you. Thank you. Um that team consists of uh multidisciplinary civil engineering, and as you heard, um uh fire safety, which I think is the principal concern people ask questions about with respect to the project. We'll obviously uh talk about that, but I also want to have an opportunity to speak about the benefits of the project, why the project. Um so I'll just ask my colleague to hit the next slide. Um you can keep going until we get to the first, there we go. We've yeah, very quickly on us. We've been permitting batteries in New York State for almost 10 years now. We've actually been in New York City where uh we've permitted multiple batteries. We have three batteries that have um come online in in Westchester. Umta recently uh uh uh incentivized uh retail storage batteries for upstate New York, and we'll talk for a minute about why they're important for the grid. Thanks. So the the quick the quick uh overview of what these batteries are doing and why we believe the city of Syracuse, a city of this size would uh needs them, is essentially what they're doing is they're charging right now, uh electricity use is essentially uh as you go. When you need to turn something on, you hope that there's a generation source that can provide that supply of energy. This is a mechanism to actually store energy so that in in times of peak demand um when uh when for example in the middle of August when air conditions are blaring and offices are going and area industry is up and running, there's actually a residual or storage source of energy that can come online and provide additional generation to in this case the area's uh a significant section of Syracuse. Next slide. Um and what they're doing is they're offsetting uh the need for these types of plants to come online to provide that energy. So this is a known as this is a peaker plant that is located on Bell Island Road. Uh it is only operational uh for 26 hours per year, uh, and that is because uh it only turns on when Syracuse needs that energy uh for those time periods. Now we're not gonna be able to eliminate the reliance on that plant, uh, but we can reduce the reliance of on that plant uh by 400 megawatt hours with the two projects that we're proposing. And the idea here, and the reason that these are incentivized by NICERTA is that ratepayers are covering the cost of maintaining these old plants, these peaker plants. They're generally dirtier, um, more expensive to maintain, and only made available for those times, those peak demands. This is a way to provide a microgrid grid more locally in Syracuse and hopefully um put that type of a plant out of business.
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