Concerned citizens met face-to-face with representatives of Compass Energy Consulting, responsible for planning of a contentious battery storage facility (BESS) near Dunvegan last Wednesday.
Safety for residents, farm animals, environment and agricultural livelihoods was top of mind at the meeting held in Alexandria. Despite assurances that the risk of fire is very low, and that the facility must meet high safety standards before it would be allowed to come online, citizens’ concerns were not appeased.
While they anticipate more engagement to ease residents’ concerns, the opponents who gathered at the Glengarry Sports Palace seek only one resolution – that the BESS does not proceed.
Jonathan Cheszes led the meeting, along with the team responsible for the planning, development and facility safety, Ryan Wheeler, James Marzotto, Logan Barrett and Scott Gerylo. Outlining the reasons for the need for the battery storage system and the location near the St-Isidore Hydro One transformer station, Cheszes tried to provide information to residents frustrated by plans for the BESS.
The provincial government, along with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) sought to procure sufficient clean energy storage projects, through battery storage facilities, to meet the growing demand for electricity. In 2024, it was announced that ten new projects for a total of 26 facilities with a capacity of 2,916 megawatts of electricity were successfully secured, with Compass Energy being one of the companies chosen to participate in this Ontario government program. With 75 per cent more electricity needed by 2050, without adding battery storage facilities as backup to hydro’s peak service times, rotating brownouts would be required.
The site in North Glengarry was chosen by the IESO due to its location near a Hydro One transformer station on a grid with capacity to allow the collection and storage of electric energy during off-peak times. The land had previously been severed from a larger farm and is not being used for agricultural purposes. The BESS project will use newer technology of Lithium-Iron Phosphate batteries with remote 24/7 monitoring, installed inside an enclosed shipping container-like structure. There will be 20 battery units, each unit with an independent HVAC cooling system along with temperature, gas and smoke detectors.
Logan Barrett, who specializes in mitigating potential issues with battery storage systems, said the system is designed with blow up preventers and that if a fire were to break out, the unit would burn into itself, with fire services focused on cooling the battery units. Barrett also said that testing has proved that any gases emitted are not toxic to humans or animals. Compass Energy will be providing specific training for the North Glengarry Fire Services, including educating the team on how to cool the adjacent units should one of the units begin to overheat.
Further, the monitoring system is designed to send notification if there is increased temperature within the cell and the system can be shut down remotely. Lithium-Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries offer more thermal stability and a higher level of safety, which is why this type of battery has been chosen for the BESS in North Glengarry. LFP batteries have enhanced resistance to overheating, fires and thermal runaway.
The battery storage facility will be monitored by three independent operators. Included in these is the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) safety systems, used to monitor and control industrial processes by collecting data from sensors and devices in operation and transmitting this data to a central control. SCADA systems control infrastructure essential in daily lives and help protect against cyber attack threats by establishing firewalls, network segmentation from other IT networks and by limiting access and modifications by unauthorized users.
Representatives from Compass Energy also stated that they are looking to arrange an onsite water supply in case of emergency, which in the short term could mean a cistern stored on the property. According to Compass Energy, any water used in an emergency on the BESS facility would be captured and managed by contractors used to build the battery storage system and not discharged into any streams.
