St. Clair Township may be the home for as many as three new battery energy storage systems if Enbridge receives approval by Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator.
As part of a public meeting during St. Clair Township council’s Dec. 19 meeting, Enbridge’s Denise Heckbert outlined the company’s plan to offer up three of its properties in the township to be future homes to battery energy storage systems, enclosures that will contain battery systems that enable energy from renewable sources to be stored and released when demand for power rises.
In a recent report penned by the IESO – the body responsible for operating Ontario’s electricity grid – they predicted a significant increase in demand for electricity due to various factors, including population growth, an increase in electric vehicle use, as well as greater industrial, economic and agricultural growth, Heckbert said.
With the upcoming retirement of the Pickering Nuclear Generation facility as well as other oil and gas-fired generation, Ontario is in desperate need of sustainable, low-carbon supply of electricity, she said.
“The IESO is responsible to figure out how much power Ontario is going to need over the next 15 to 20 years and then making sure there’s enough supply for that demand,” she told council. “(They predict) that there will be significant electricity demand increases.”
As such, Enbridge is proposing three battery energy storage system projects in St. Clair Township on Enbridge-owned land – one at 3132 Tecumseh Rd in Courtright, another at 1129 Petrolia Line in Corunna and a potential third at 4534 Ladysmith Rd. in Corunna.
If the IESO selects one or all of these projects during its request for proposal in the spring, the company will undertake environmental studies, land use studies, interconnection studies as well as hold more consultations with local residents as well as nearby Indigenous communities in order to ensure that the project will be built safely, Heckbert said.
count. Pat Brown asked why Enbridge had chosen the three pieces of land.
“How did you decide on these locations?” he asked. “The lands are all agricultural zoning.”
“These are good properties in terms of they’re very close to transmission and they already have other uses underway on the property,” said Heckbert.
count. Brad Langstaff asked about potential compensation if operations affected surrounding residents or construction degraded surrounding roads.
“It’s our plan to work closely with the county and the township on the roads question,” Heckbert said.
In response to a question of how the township can allow battery energy storage system on land the municipality has designated as agricultural land, township CAO John Rodey explained said provincial approval of the project would exempt those properties from municipal zoning.
“We’re not the approval agency for what they’re doing … we can’t say ‘you can’t go ahead’,” Rodey continued. “It’s the same with communication towers, which are approved by the CRTC a federal jurisdiction. So it doesn’t matter what the zoning is, if the (province) approves it they can go ahead with it. They’re a higher level of government, so they can do things notwithstanding what our bylaws say.”
Former township councilor Tracy Kingston asked whether the local fire department was equipped to handle fires at the facilities and if not, would Enbridge pay for training.
Heckbert said that as part of the project plan, the company would provide any training needed to St. Clair Township and any other potential responding fire fighting forces in the area.
Following the question and answer portion of the presentation, council passed a motion of support for the project.
“I’m not crazy about these locations, but it’s their property so I’ll support this,” Brown said.