NextEra Energy Resources outlines plans for new battery storage facility in Highland County

Director Mark Trumbauer of NextEra Energy Resources addressed Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels on the Florida company’s plans to build a new 200-megawatt battery storage facility in New Market Township during commissioners’ Wednesday, Sept. 24 meeting.

Trumbauer told commissioners that NextEra has purchased land off of Mad River Road for what, if approved, would be the company’s first battery storage facility in Ohio. According to Trumbauer, the “overall capital expenditure is in excess of $40 million” for the facility, marking “a significant amount of investment” in the county.

“This is our first battery storage facility in Ohio, and it's got a lot of people in our company excited,” Trumbauer said. “We want to do business in Ohio. We think Ohio's a great place to be.”

He said his meeting with commissioners was the first of likely several public meetings in the area to discuss the proposal.

According to their website, “NextEra Energy Resources is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America fueling economic growth and innovation. With approximately 33,410 megawatts of net generating capacity, the company is helping the U.S. establish energy dominance by delivering reliable, low-cost electricity through a diverse portfolio that harnesses all forms of American energy—nuclear, natural gas, renewables and battery storage—while expanding critical infrastructure including transmission lines to move power efficiently across the country.

Their website says that they currently “operate 50 battery energy storage sites across the U.S. and Canada,” with Highland County primed to be their first site in Ohio. More information on these facilities can be found at: https://www.nexteraenergyresources.com/what-we-do/energy-storage.html.

“These are now becoming more and more important to the grid,” Trumbauer said. “Battery storage, up to about five years ago, was not really readily available due to the technology. But as you well know, the battery technology, including things that are going on here in Ohio, is really advancing, and so now we're able to store electricity, which, 10 years ago we weren't able to do that.” 

Trumbauer likened the facilities as being the electricity equivalent to a water tower.

“It's going to be something that is going to be imperative to not only generate electricity, but to store electricity for demand and peak demand periods of time,” Trumbauer said. “It's solely attached to the grid, and so we can charge off the grid, and when there's excess power, and when there's a demand for power we can discharge. 

“When there's an abundance of electrons on the grid, which happens generally during the evenings, we can take and charge batteries, and then when there's a demand during the day, we go ahead and have the ability to discharge. It’s arbitrage, if you think about it, from that standpoint. We can regulate, modulate, the electricity, and we're taking advantage of excess power at night, and during the peak demand, we're discharging into the grid.”

According to Trumbauer, this 200-megawatt project is designed to take up 20 acres of a 32-acre site. Trumbauer also explained what the facility would look like and how it would operate. 

“They're completely safe,” he said. “We monitor them. We look at the various aspects of what's going on in the facility, including gas and temperature. Essentially, they're self contained units. If you think of like a CONEX box or a shipping storage facility or container, they look a lot like that, but they have air conditioners on one side so they can keep it cool.”

In response to questions from commissioners, Trumbauer said that this facility is not connected to any of the area solar projects, but it will go through a similar permitting process through the Ohio Power Siting Board. Like the solar developers, Trumbauer said they are “working with the surrounding neighbors” and planning public meetings in the future, and he invited commissioners to tour the site as well.

As an answer to another question from Daniels, Trumbauer said a future agreement regarding a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, is also possible.

“The land that you're getting right now is probably in CAUV or something like that,” Daniels said. “We'll ask you about what we get out of this. What's our revenue look like as a part of this development?”

“I think there's a lot of opportunities for the county potentially to even enter into a PILOT with us, and that is probably where we would want to go,” Trumbauer said. “Again, we would be working with the taxation entity, or the taxing entity, and making sure that that would come up with a proper valuation, and that we're paying our fair share of taxes to the community.”

Jim Samuel of Capitol Integrity Group, who attended the meeting with Trumbauer, added that a PILOT could also prove beneficial to the county in light of property tax reform discussions in Ohio.

“If you do a PILOT, obviously it takes it out of that property tax realm, so any type of guaranteed revenue to the county, and probably more importantly, to the township which is predominantly funded with property taxes, that dollar amount would be something that the county and the township could count on for 20, 25 years into the future,” Samuel said. “That would probably be a good thing, again, considering what’s going on with property taxes.”

Also similar to the solar project, Trumbauer answered a question from Daniels confirming that a Road Use Maintenance Agreement, or RUMA, will be drafted and involve the county and township.  

Roades asked about setbacks and noise requirements for the facility.

"I believe we're about 2,000 feet off of the road, so that's a natural buffer right there,” Trumbauer said. “Beyond that, the terrain in this site is ideal.

“There's the ability to be set back far enough so that we have that natural ability to not hide the facility, but to put it back where it's not going to be right front and center for the traveling public to drive by and see every day.”

Regarding the noise levels, Trumbauer said they would follow the “very low threshold” required by the OPSB.

“It's considerably quieter than what we're sitting in in this room, with the lights and everything else going on and the ambient noise of the air conditioning,” he said. “That is one of the strictest things that we have to deal with.”

Britton also asked about whether the project will bring “employment opportunities” for local residents in the future.

“For the construction side of this, the employment base is actually going to be local,” Trumbauer said. “Obviously, we're going to be hauling gravel. We're going to be procuring labor. 

“The long-term employment base of the facility itself is pretty minimal, but the construction side of this facility is going to be a tremendous, tremendous input to the community.”

Daniels spoke about the “grid reliability” issues that have been in the news in recent months and have also been discussed by speakers at commission meetings. He said that the proposed facility “could be considered a safety valve for our local residents with capacity issues.”

“The facility itself is more of a regional basis, which the region is your community is here too,” Trumbauer said. “You're absolutely right when you're talking about capacity and reliability. That's the reason the battery storage makes the best sense right now, from the standpoint, we don't have to build a solar field. We don't have to build a wind farm. The electricity exists as it is right now. We're just using it better, and that is an important factor, from the standpoint of the best use of land for energy right now.”

For more from Wednesday’s meeting, go to https://highlandcountypress.com/news/commissioners-select-truck-barn-co….

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