Prior to their regular monthly meeting on Thursday night, the Marshall County Plan Commission had put together a work session in order to have a chance to talk with Tom Abbott, a fire chief in Arizona who had experience with emergency response to industrial battery storage systems that the board is currently struggling with regulating.
Board member Deborah Johnson had previously made contact with Abbott in her research on the subject and asked for the board to have a special session to talk with him by ZOOM.
While setting up the meeting Adley was contacted by Abbott who had a personal matter he needed to attend to on Thursday night. Abbott gave Adley the name of Paul Rogers, another fire chief from New York who was considered an expert on energy storage systems and would be a good source of information for the board.
During their preliminary discussions, Rogers told Adley that he worked for a company called ESRG that had been hired as a consultant for Tennaska, the company that is currently trying to build a battery storage facility in Marshall County.
Neither Adley, Rogers or Tennaska had any idea the relationship they had and both Rogers and Adley decided it would be best to stop any conversations at that point. Adley did tell the Plan Commission members that Rogers was “the most knowledgable” person he had spoken to about the matter so far.
Since Rogers then was unable to address the Commission members, Johnson approached Darrel Eiler, who had been a volunteer fireman in Argos and was currently the chief of the Southwest Central Fire Territory. He was a HAZMAT team leader in South Bend.
He told the board that there were currently no fire codes in the state of Indiana regarding battery storage facilities and that re-writing the codes was currently in process. He said part of that process is accepting the national code and then making adjustments. Currently, there is nothing in the code.
When asked about NFPA code 855 which is the current standard for ESS in the state, Eiler replied each standard in the NFPA code has a board of individuals that sit on the committee that will do whatever they can to maximize their constituent’s profits and firefighters get representation on the same committee’s to make sure they are safe.
He told the board that in New Carlisle the company putting in the structure and county officials are working together as they go along but they are “winging it” as they go.
He said he couldn’t speak to any current regulations regarding ESS since he had not had the opportunity to review any and was open with the board saying that he was more capable of speaking to EV or electric car batteries being his area of expertise.
In the case of an EV car battery fire, all fire chiefs were told they should bring 10-15,000 gallons of water because “you aren’t putting it out.”
The few fires of an ESS that he has researched have involved days and millions of gallons of water. He said his concern with his expertise in HAZMAT was the chemicals and smoke.
He said for an electric car fire they would “let it burn” if there is no exposure, with that option being the best for the environment and the firefighters.
Asked about space between units in a facility Eiler was told the current standard in Marshall County would be three feet. He told the board that not knowing the type of containment system or structure “seemed” a little close for safety.
He said that he thought firefighters would build their own way to contain the water used to put out the fire to minimize the environmental impact of runoff.
He said that firefighters had special areas of expertise regarding different types of HAZMAT situations and felt that the area of ESS would soon be a training area.
He felt that before a site went in, on-site tours, pre-planning, facility prints, and discussions about how the company and the emergency responders could help each other in an emergency situation were essential. He felt all chiefs in the county should be involved in training for each facility since it was very possible they would be called to any such emergency.
It was noted the current code involves this type of yearly training for emergency personnel.
“I would want to be involved start to finish on an emergency response plan,” he said.
