The Peoria Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended for approval to city council a new Battery Energy Storage System to be located at the northwest corner of 75th Avenue & Butler Drive.
Council is expected to consider the facility for final approval in September.
Senior Planner Jacob Herrera said the applicant is Barrel Cactus Energy Storage LLC, which is requesting to amend the existing Legacy Point planned-area development to allow for the facility on 14 acres.
The site is a part of the larger 346-acre Legacy Point project located in both Peoria and Glendale.
This particular site is in Peoria and surrounded by a mix of industrial development parcels and vacant land.
Another BESS facility is planned for the north Arizona Public Service substation at Old Carefree Highway, just west of Lake Pleasant Parkway.
Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson, who works in the construction sector, said these types of grid-connected systems are needed, and the construction safety standards that go into them are taught in his apprenticeships programs.
This facility is a good fit for the area, he said.
“I can’t imagine a better location for a BESS than right next to the Agua Fria Substation,” he said.
The BESS would receive electricity from the power grid, store that energy in large lithium-ion batteries and release the stored energy back to the grid for consumption. These facilities allow providers to store electricity when it is cheap and discharge it during high-demand periods.
The facility at Legacy Point would be 120 megawatts/960 megawatt-hours with about 328 battery units, 41 transformers, an internal high-voltage substation, an operations and maintenance yard, material laydown area, mobile office trailer, and an interconnection line extending from the internal BESS substation to the nearby Salt River Project Agua Fria Substation, according to a staff report.
Herrera said this means the facility is designed to provide up to 120 megawatts of power for approximately eight hours. This amounts to an electrical supply of roughly 48,000 to 120,000 homes, depending on average local usage.
Energy providers APS and SRP reached all-time peak demand records this summer, and with continued population growth, officials say battery facilities are a necessary part of the energy grid.
“It is a critical component to energy infrastructure as we move forward, and as we plan for the growth of this area,” said Christy Eichorn, senior permitting manager for Plus Power, a renewable energy company that develops large-scale battery energy storage systems, who is working with Peoria on the facility.
Safety concerns have been raised over BESS facilities, however codes and standards regulating them have evolved to better address safety, with layers of safety features and monitoring systems. Each BESS battery is independently monitored and can be shut down within a few seconds for an emergency or a repair.
The facility must adhere to the most recently adopted National Fire Protection Administration 855 standards, which are established for fire protection and safety specific to stationary energy storage systems, like BESS facilities.
Eichorn said she has met with the Peoria Fire-Medical Department several times regarding this BESS.
“They will review our emergency response plan and we will meet with them at a minimum of once a year to see if they need any additional training or information from us. Technology does change quickly and we want to make sure that everybody is up to speed,” she said. “We will continue to communicate and meet with them and make sure they are comfortable with the project.”
Senior News Editor Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on X @philiphaldiman. Please 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 Philip Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.
Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater.
Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.
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