After several Surprise City Council, planning and zoning commission and public hearings over the last couple of years, the council finally agreed on a setback distance from existing homes for battery energy storage systems, or BESS.
The council on Sept. 1 did not agree on a set number, however, and instead unanimously voted to make the distances variable from 100 to 500 feet, depending on the BESS project location.
Seven years after Arizona Public Service’s devastating McMicken station thermal runaway and explosion incident, the city council put to rest the question of how far the emerging energy technology can safely be from homes by passing a zoning text amendment.
Because a 150-foot buffer was already built in from the property line, the council’s decision effectively makes the distances 250 to 650 feet.
The decision came after city staff initially proposed a much wider 1,500-foot buffer to safely evacuate residents in case of another McMicken incident.
But the council appeared confident that the new technology is much safer now.
“What I want to remind everybody is that the McMicken incident was a catalyst for complete change of the industry,” Councilmember Johnny V. Melton told the rest of the council before it voted.
BESS regulations have been attempted for the past year and a half in Surprise. The first community outreach meeting was in January 2025, before the city council and planning and zoning commission each discussed the issue in May and June.
The P&Z twice voted in recent months to recommend a 100-foot setback, and the council was initially debating setbacks of 100, 500 and 1,000 feet on Sept. 1
“This battery energy system is for the future,” P&Z Commissioner Lisa Everett told the council. “I know we are looking back at yesterday, what happened in the past, but you are comparing apples and oranges. What is happening today is completely different. It’s a whole new animal.”
Melton said the future of powering Surprise could be affected by the decision the council made.
“Now we have this innovation — utility scale, battery energy storage,” Melton said. “It’s right there. It’s easy to scale. This is a small footprint. Uses little to no water. And it dispatches quickly.”
The energy the BESS units collect are meant to keep the power grid stable by storing energy to power areas during high-demand times and add to the power portfolio for utilities like APS.
The company plans to place more BESS units near power substations to reduce the need to place them near homes as much as possible, plus it would have a quicker line into the main system.
“I get really nervous with the possibility of dropping a battery storage facility right in front of someone’s house, or real close to someone’s house, even though we’ve spent the time talking to engineers, talking to people to understand they are safer now,” Councilmember Chris Judd said before the vote.
Councilmember Jack Hastings said a shorter setback is also good for business reasons.
“When businesses come to our city, we talk about water a lot,” Hastings said. “They look at the resources that we have, and water’s a big one, but it’s also power. And if we don’t have the resources and we don’t have the stuff they need, they go to other places.”
The zoning text amendment includes an eight- to 12-foot perimeter wall around the BESS. Mayor Kevin Sartor wanted to make sure the wall would not be a chain-link fence, calling it an “eyesore” at the BESS he visited to learn more about them.
Sartor also said he favored a variable range for the setbacks to give the council some flexibility in determining future BESS projects.
Jason Stone can be reached at jstone@iniusa.org. Submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Meet Jason Jason Stone joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2019, after a distinguished three decade media career that included stops at the Arizona Republic, iHeart Media/Clear Channel and Beckett Sports Card magazine. He remembers when airports sold newspapers.
Community: He is a big supporter of the Valley's original sports team: The Phoenix Suns.
Education: Northern Arizona University with a BS in broadcast journalism and a minor in sports coaching.
Random Fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
Hobbies: Surfing, backgammon and men who aren't afraid to cry.
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