On Tuesday (Jan. 31), Prince Edward County Council at a special session voted to deny their support for the proposed Athol battery energy storage system (BESS) project on Mowbray Road.

Council’s decision (which was in the wake of their denial for the much larger Picton BESS site), was for the negative, despite a staff report calling for acceptance of the proponent Solar Flow-Through Funds’s pair of 3 MW BESS sites. The staff report was in the affirmative because of the project’s utility in local grid stability and because the outstanding risks of the lithium-phosphate technology could be addressed in a later site approval process. However, the report’s author admitted that they were not an expert in electrical systems and that the data concerning lithium-phosphate energy storage technology safety in regard to fires was limited.

Ameliasburgh Councillor Janice Maynard, who was supportive of staff’s BESS recommendation, had the following to say about the differences that lithium-phosphate technology offers (compared to the lithium-ion technology of the previous Picton BESS site proposal):

Council voted 8 to 5 against the Athol BESS. Mayor Steve Ferguson, before voting in the negative, outlined his position with the following words:

Last December, Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Todd Smith, issued a directive that made it a requirement to have municipal council support for IESO approval of BESS projects.

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