Huntington hearing Tuesday on two battery storage projects amid safety concerns

Two battery storage proposals, one on Townline Road in East Northport and another on Arnold Drive in Huntington near the Greenlawn substation, pushed Suffolk County’s local energy debate straight into the neighborhoods around them. The Town of Huntington scheduled a hearing Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Huntington Town Hall as officials weighed whether to impose a six-month moratorium on battery storage approvals while safety concerns were reviewed.

The East Northport project would occupy 6.5 acres of industrial property near a neighborhood. The Huntington site would sit near the Greenlawn substation, also close to homes. For residents, the immediate questions were practical: how far the facilities would sit from nearby property lines, how local fire crews would respond in an emergency, and what protections would be in place if a battery system overheated or ignited.

Those concerns were sharpened by fires at battery energy storage systems in Jefferson, Orange and Suffolk counties in summer 2023. Governor Kathy Hochul convened New York’s Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group after those incidents, and NYSERDA said initial findings released Dec. 21, 2023, found no reported injuries and no harmful levels of toxins detected at the fire sites. The agency also said there was no evidence of significant off-site migration of contaminants linked to the fires.

State officials responded again in July 2024 with draft fire code language aimed at improving coordination, emergency preparedness and local firefighter training for battery storage projects. The draft rules called for emergency response plans, site-specific firefighter training, qualified personnel on call during incidents, industry-funded independent peer reviews for qualifying installations and central-station monitoring of fire detection systems.

Huntington’s latest hearing also followed an earlier town effort. In 2023, the Huntington Town Board considered Local Law Introductory No. 26-2023, which would have declared a six-month moratorium on permits and approvals for battery storage systems in the town. The current proposal would again pause approvals while town officials reviewed community safety concerns and long-term planning issues tied to the two projects.

Proponents of battery storage argue the systems can help create a reliable, affordable and cleaner electric grid. But on Long Island, the debate has become more immediate than abstract. Other Suffolk communities, including Islip, have also considered moratoriums as towns try to balance grid upgrades against the possibility of a fire event next to homes, roads and substations in densely settled neighborhoods.