Special Town Meeting ~ November 19, 2024

2024-11-19 · Town Meeting · 44:13 · watch on YouTube →

A special town meeting called for one purpose: whether to enact a six-month moratorium on battery energy storage systems. The town has no ordinance or standards covering such a facility, so the only review available would be site plan review, and officials said an interested party has been looking at Durham. Residents questioned why the matter was being decided at a sparsely attended special meeting rather than at the April town meeting, asked whether the town could simply ban the facilities outright, and pressed the fire chief on how a lithium-ion fire would be fought with the town's water supply. Two people who work on the battery project going up in Gorham (?) spoke about grid stabilisation and the effect a facility valued in the hundreds of millions would have on the town's mill rate. The article passed on a card vote by what the moderator called an overwhelming majority, and the meeting adjourned.

No written minutes could be matched to this meeting. The transcript records that the speaker changed but never who was speaking, so any name attached to a statement below is inferred from context and is marked (?).

What was discussed

1. 0:10
   Warrant and article 1: moderator

   The moderator read the warrant calling voters to the community center on Hallowell Road on Tuesday November 19, 2024 at 6:45 p.m. to act on articles one through four. Bill Schneider was nominated and seconded with no other nominations, three written ballots were cast, and he was sworn in.

2. 0:10
   Article 2: moderator's manual and rules

   The Maine Moderator's Manual was adopted as a guide by unanimous consent. The moderator asked speakers to raise a hand, address the chair, introduce themselves and keep remarks on the article, and reminded the room that everyone present is a neighbour.

3. 0:10
   Permission for non-voters to speak

   Three non-voters were named and allowed to speak by unanimous consent: town planner George Thebarge, fire chief Robert Tripp and town manager Jerry Douglas. Nobody else present was a non-voter, so the meeting did not have to separate voters from non-voters.

4. 5:34
   Article 3 skipped as a typo

   Article three on the printed schedule was a typographical error with no meaning. No motion was made on it and the meeting moved past it.

5. 5:34
   Article 4 moved, and confusion over the papers

   The motion was made and seconded that an ordinance entitled Moratorium Ordinance, Battery Energy Storage Systems be enacted. Several attendees had picked up different documents at the door and were unsure which was which, so the moderator went back and explained that one sheet is the meeting schedule, one is the roughly five-page ordinance being voted on, and one is an information sheet from the previous week's public session.

6. 5:34
   Are there any of these in Maine

   A resident asked why the state needs a battery energy storage system and whether any exist. The answer given was that there is one in Gorham and one proposed in Lincoln, but no inventory of every such facility statewide.

7. 11:39
   What the moratorium does

   The town has no framework for accepting an application and no standards against which to issue a permit, so if a proposal arrived it would go through with site plan review as the only lever, a mechanism designed for developments like shopping malls rather than for these safety questions. The moratorium puts a six-month hold on applications while the town works out an ordinance through a public input process, as it did with solar last year. If there is no clear path after six months the select board can extend it once, for a year in total from enactment.

8. 11:39
   It does not cover home batteries

   A resident asked whether he could still put a battery in his garage to store solar power for outages. The ordinance exempts a battery storage system designed and intended only to store energy produced by a permitted solar energy system, so rooftop solar with battery storage is unaffected, whether already installed or added during the six months.

9. 17:24
   The 20 kilowatt-hour threshold

   Derek Lovich (?) of Snow Road (?) said concern had been raised at the information session that a 20 kilowatt-hour maximum is less than some homes need. He was told the solar exemption resolves it: someone with 30 kilowatt-hours of storage tied to their own generation is not covered, and the point was clarified after public comment ahead of this meeting.

10. 17:24
    Objection to using a special town meeting

    A resident said special town meetings are the worst thing a town can have, drawing 50 or 60 people against 150 to 200 at annual town meeting, and that the town was underprepared with information available mainly on the website. He added that Durham has no industry to help the tax base, so a project that might help should be looked at rather than kicked down the road.

11. 17:24
    Why it could not wait until April

    Officials answered that a public information session was held the previous week, recorded and posted online along with the handout. The reason for not waiting for the April town meeting is that any proposal arriving before then would have to be processed without any framework. The tax revenue point was turned around: it is precisely the moratorium that gives the town six months to evaluate economic impact rather than being at the mercy of whoever applies.

12. 17:24
    Why this is only coming up now

    Battery storage has been on the planning board's scope of work for over two years, but the board is volunteer and also handles subdivisions and conditional use permits, and last year prioritised resource protection and solar. The pressure now comes from an interested party looking at Durham, and the moratorium is the new town attorney's recommendation. The argument made was that the town has been reacting to what gets put in front of it rather than being proactive.

13. 23:11
    Fire chief on lithium-ion fires

    The fire chief said he has done the training but not met with vendors. With a volunteer department and limited water, 23 dry hydrants of which a couple are inactive, and a drought, there are two options: let it burn and protect the exposures around it, or apply copious amounts of water. Training figures put a single Tesla car at 8,000 to 10,000 gallons, against the 4,000 gallons the town's trucks carry, so anything larger means calling mutual aid for a tanker shuttle.

14. 23:11
    The chief has no leverage without an ordinance

    He told the meeting that on a non-residential development of this kind he has no enforcement or regulatory ability to require a dry hydrant, additional training, or a larger pumper tanker. Time to plan a water supply, train firefighters or require provision on site would help, but at present he can only work with what is already in place.

15. 23:11
    Toxic gases

    Patty Smith (?) asked what is released if a fire is allowed to burn. The chief said it depends how the units are laid out, whether pods, buildings or shipping containers, and that explosion-proof construction would matter. Once alight there is little to be done; fire blankets exist at roughly $3,000 to $5,000 but are single use and only car-sized. He confirmed toxic gases are emitted, that crews could work hose lines with the wind away from houses, and that a geographical plan would have to exist before construction.

16. 28:47
    What an ordinance could require

    Speakers pointed out that if the answer to a fire is to let it burn, the town would want to say where such a project may sit relative to housing and how much non-burnable defensible space is required. None of that can be asked of an applicant without an ordinance to work from, which is the case being made for the moratorium.

17. 28:47
    What happens over the six months

    If the moratorium is enacted, the select board would direct the planning board to explore permitting and regulatory options and bring a proposal through the public participation process to the April 2025 town meeting. The planning board chair has already been consulted and understands it may mean extra meetings. If April cannot be met, extending would require another special town meeting a year from now, with long notice, aiming for July or August.

18. 33:53
    Could the town ban them outright

    A resident argued the town should first vote on whether it wants these at all rather than spend time writing an ordinance. George Thebarge answered that any ordinance is a legislative act of town meeting, so a prohibition is legally possible, but no vote can bind a future town meeting, which could reverse it. If the moratorium were voted down, no board would invest time in an ordinance and anyone could apply in the meantime.

19. 33:53
    Requiring the facility to provide its own protection

    Todd Beaulieu (?) asked whether an ordinance could require a battery storage site to provide its own fire protection. The wording of tonight's ordinance cannot be changed, but the moderator allowed the discussion of what a future ordinance might contain.

20. 33:53
    Why the ordinance is retroactive

    Jim Sanborn of Runaround Pond Road (?) asked why the ordinance reaches back to September 4. He was told that moratorium language routinely covers a period of some 40 to 45 days before enactment so that an application filed just beforehand is caught. The town has no application in hand.

21. 39:26
    Why anyone would want one

    A resident asked what the case for a battery storage system is. A voter who identified himself as Cody (?), and as part of the team building the Gorham facility, which he described as 137 megawatts, said it stabilises the grid, stores output from surrounding solar farms and releases it at night, and draws attention and investment to the local grid.

22. 39:26
    Effect on the tax base

    Officials (?) explained that a project's valuation is added to the town's total, and these facilities can be valued in the hundreds of millions. Since the mill rate is the budget divided by total valuation, adding two or three hundred million could cut the rate substantially. There is no proposed project at present.

23. 39:26
    Built-in fire suppression and monitoring

    Two speakers connected to the Gorham project said each module comes with its own fire suppression and that the systems are constantly monitored so units shut themselves down on thermal runaway before the fire department would be involved. They acknowledged incidents have happened in New York and elsewhere, and said the projects are moving west to east across the country, with the proposed Lincoln facility among the largest in the world.

24. 39:26
    Planning board member and a contractor speak for it

    Brian Lanoie of Rabbit Road (?) said that as a member of the board he cannot effectively do his job or make the best decisions for the town without the moratorium and the time to research. A speaker who said he could be a contractor building such a project said he was originally against the moratorium but changed his mind after the information session, noting the town otherwise has little say beyond ISO New England, the PUC and possibly state environmental review.

What was decided

• 0:10
  Article 1: Bill Schneider was nominated and seconded as moderator with no other nominations, elected on three written ballots, and sworn in.passed
• 0:10
  Article 2: the Maine Moderator's Manual was adopted as a guide for the meeting by unanimous consent, with no objection raised.passed
• 0:10
  By unanimous consent, three named non-voters were permitted to speak at the meeting: town planner George Thebarge, fire chief Robert Tripp and town manager Jerry Douglas.passed
• 5:34
  Article 3 was a typographical error on the printed schedule. No motion was made on it, and the moderator stated it therefore fails.failed
• 39:26
  Article 4: moved and seconded that an ordinance entitled Moratorium Ordinance, Battery Energy Storage Systems be enacted, placing a six-month hold on applications, extendable once by the select board to a year, and not applying to battery storage serving a permitted solar energy system. Voted by raised card and declared passed by an overwhelming majority.passed
• 39:26
  Motion to adjourn, seconded and carried on a card vote.passed

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Worth knowing

• 23:11
  The fire chief told the meeting there are only two ways to handle a lithium-ion fire: let it burn and protect what is around it, or apply copious water. His training figures put a single Tesla car at 8,000 to 10,000 gallons, against the 4,000 gallons the town's trucks carry, with 23 dry hydrants in town, a couple of them inactive, during a drought. Without an ordinance he has no ability to require a hydrant, extra training or a larger tanker of a developer.
• 17:24
  A resident objected to settling this at a special town meeting drawing 50 or 60 people when the annual town meeting draws 150 to 200, and said the town should gather far more information before voting. Officials answered that a proposal arriving before April could not be handled without a framework, which is why they did not wait.
• 28:47
  The moratorium runs six months and the select board can extend it once, to a year. The plan is for the planning board to bring an ordinance through public participation to the April 2025 town meeting; missing that would mean another special town meeting a year from now.
• 39:26
  A facility of this kind can be valued in the hundreds of millions, and adding two or three hundred million to the town's valuation would divide the same budget across a much larger base, potentially cutting the mill rate substantially. There is no proposed project at present, though officials said an interested party has been looking at Durham.

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