Kendall County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to amend the 2021 International Fire Code as it pertains to battery energy storage systems, currently a hot-button topic in Comfort and Kendall County.
Commissioners spent over an hour talking about provisions contains in the 2024 International Fire Code (IFC) as they deal with battery storage systems. Two firms, Key Capture Energy and East Point Energy, have made know their intentions to build massive megawatt storage facilities on land near the LCRA substation, particularly along Flat Rock Creek Road in Comfort.
Recent incidents involving fires at similar plants around the nation have troubled Comfort residents, knowing the area is served by a volunteer fire department, is extremely rural in nature and lacking assurances that any evacuations or resident safety measures or precautions are included in the energy firms’ plans.
But the depth and breadth of the IFC — with its more than 2,000 pages of regulations and restrictions — is daunting for commissioners who received the May 28 agenda and their copy of the IFC codes just two business days prior.
“The main concern today is to get the meat and potatoes of that section on the books, and then we can fine-tune and revisit this when needed,” County Judge Shane Stolarczyk said.
“I support this code, there’s lots of good stuff to it, but there are a lot of unknowns. About the battery storage section, I agree, it’s a great addition,” the judge said. “However, we need to make sure that we don’t adopt something that has other areas that become a burden to everyone.”
The court was under pressure to take action before East Point, or a third interested energy company, formulate plans for development in the area.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Chad Carpenter said the county is waiting on a phone call from East Point Energy “to discuss furthering their development plan. When they start this conversation, whatever fire code we have on the books is what we have to effectively enforce.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian said the county operates under the 2021 IFC and is considering updating the code by adopting the 2024 IFC, to deal with new technologies and research that did not exist when previous versions were adopted.
The 2024 code contains regulations that focus on battery energy storage systems, she said.
“This will provide mandatory requirements for the safety, strategy and features of these energy storage systems,” Wisian said.
“And this lets our residents know that we are working toward solutions. And today we’re looking at that in a very serious way,” she added.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Richard Chapman said there are too many regulations within the 2024 IFC that will negatively impact county residents if adopted, as is.
“The new 2024 (IFC) even goes into how you have to have your locks put on your commercial doors,” Chapman said. “If we just adopt it in its entirety, I think we’re going to create some problems.
“I like what they have done on the battery storage systems part. But there’s a lot of stuff in other areas that are going to hurt residents of the county,” he added.
Wisian said she favored adopting the code “with the provision that we’re going to amend those sections that are not appropriate. At least we’ll have taken that step and ... see what other codes we can find to implement, to show the folks we’re willing to move forward and get something done.”
After several ideas of adoption and amending were discussed and discarded, the commission settled on sticking to the current 2021 IFC but implementing the 2024’s rules in Section 12 that pertain to battery storage systems.
“We have to be able to say we know what we’re doing, before we do it,” Chapman said. “We cannot pass something if we do not know what’s in it. I would fully support, if we could somehow pass, today, adopting the 2024 code pertaining to the battery storage systems.”
Stolarczyk reversed that notion, offering to stick with the existing 2021 IFC and attach the 2024 regulations that deal with energy.
“The battery storage section, I agree, it’s a great addition. However, we need to make sure that we don’t adopt something that has other areas that become a burden to everyone,” Stolarczyk said.
Before the eventual vote, Carpenter said the commissioners “have the ability to amend the code. We have the ability to go through it in more detail and yes, that will happen.”
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