Huntington pauses battery storage projects for six months over fire safety concerns

Huntington Town Board has put new battery storage projects on hold for six months after local fire officials raised concerns about what would happen if a lithium-ion facility caught fire near neighborhoods. The 5-0 vote adopted Local Law Introductory No. 17-2026 and immediately paused two proposed projects, one on Townline Road in East Northport and another on Arnold Drive in Huntington near the Greenlawn substation.

The East Northport proposal would have used about 6.5 acres of industrial property close to homes, while the Arnold Drive site was also described as being near residential areas. Town leaders said they wanted time to meet with fire officials and study the risks before allowing any permits or approvals to move forward. Dave Bennardo sponsored the resolution, and the town said two battery-storage applications are now frozen under the moratorium.

The safety concerns were not abstract. Bennardo said volunteer fire crews could face real problems responding to a battery incident, including false alarms, delays while waiting for management to open secured gates, and the difficulty of reaching a site quickly during an overnight emergency. Key Capture Energy, one of the developers involved, said New York’s updated fire code now requires an emergency operations plan with the local fire department before a facility can operate. That requirement underscores the central issue now facing Huntington: whether the town has enough emergency planning in place before more storage capacity is added near homes.

The pause also fits into a broader state system that is trying to catch up with the rapid growth of battery storage. NYSERDA says energy storage systems are regulated at federal, state and local levels and must undergo rigorous safety testing. New York adopted updated energy-storage safety codes on July 25, 2025, following work tied to the state Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on July 28, 2023. The updated rules strengthened protections and pointed to Section 1207 of the 2025 Fire Code of New York State.

Huntington is not the only Suffolk town drawing a harder line. Southold extended its own battery storage moratorium and its BESS task force recommended special-use permits and fire-safety reviews for larger systems. In Huntington, the six-month pause now leaves two projects in limbo while officials decide whether the problem is a real safety gap, local resistance from neighbors, or a combination of both.