Lack of BESS regulation and responsibility highlighted at Kilcullen meeting

There is more regulation attached to selling a home-made pot of jam at a local market than there is for the installation of grid-scale battery energy storage systems, a meeting in Kilcullen was told last night, writes Brian Byrne.

Upwards of 30 people attended the event in Kilcullen Community Centre, organised by the Two Mile House Says NO! campaign against what would be the largest BESS in Europe, planned for Dunnstown.

Campaign members Hugh Dillon, Aidan Farrell and Eleanor Wauchob each gave presentations on the issue, highlighting respectively the lack of Irish regulation around such installations, the unsuitability of the Dunnstown site in terms of access and evacuation should there be a thermal runaway incident, and details of more than 50 such incidents around the world resulting in serious explosions, fires and toxic smoke.

The Kilcullen meeting followed a similar one three weeks ago in Two Mile House, and Eleanor Wauchob noted that since then there have been at least two more significant fires involving large-scale lithium battery storage operations.

The TMHSN campaign was recently granted leave to have a Judicial Review of the An Bord Pleanala decision to overturn Kildare County Council's refusal of planning permission for the Dunnstown project, initiated by Strategic Power Projects Limited.

Hugh Dillon (above) said their campaign isn't just for the local area, but to ensure that such technology is put in place in a safe manner everywhere. "There are no regulations here, no standards, nobody taking responsibility," he said, noting that BESS installations didn't require certification or environmental impact examination under Irish planning and safety laws.

Aidan Farrell (above), a chartered engineer by profession, highlighted the fact that the plans for the Dunnstown installation showed no attenuation measures on site for dealing with the large quantities of highly toxic water that would result from dealing with a fire at the BESS. "It's sitting on top of the Kildare aquifer, where a million litres of contaminated water would go if this happened."

During the discussion which followed the presentations, issues raised included concern about home insurance for residents in the area of the BESS, the lack of definite plans for dealing with fire incident control and evacuation, the inadequacy of the Kildare Fire Service's resources to deal with a fire incident, and the lack of responsibility by any state department or entity for such installations.

Commenting that the authorities are being 'complacent' about a technology which is at the very early stages of development, Hugh Dillon appealed for people to write to Ministers Eamon Ryan and Daragh O'Brien, heading the two departments which have the potential to take charge of such installations. "The Government needs to take control of this," he said, adding that there are other energy storage options being successfully developed and that these need to be looked at rather than relying on a potentially toxic and dangerous technology. 

The meeting was concluded with an appeal for support for the group's fundraising to pay for their legal campaign through the High Court.

Aidan Farrell shows the 7km radius around the Dunnstown site, and the communities which could be given 'stay inside' orders in the event of a BESS fire incident.

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