The town’s Zoning Board of Appeals appeared to get bogged down by legal definitions and scientific concepts causing them to stall their decision-making when it came to Salt Cod Storage, a battery energy storage system proposed for the former Montaup Electric coal-fired power plant.

 

Somerset doesn’t have a zoning bylaw that addresses battery electricity storage systems, or BESS. 

 

Flatiron Energy, the Denver, Colorado-based company overseeing the battery storage project, claims the Riverside Avenue project can proceed by right. Flatiron Energy plans to harvest and store electrical charge from the electrical grid when there is a surplus and release it back onto the grid when demand is highest.

 

“Storage is an allowed use within an industrial district,” said Jeffrey Ganguly, the real estate attorney of Boston-based Foley Hoag law practice serving as Flatiron’s counsel at the July 16 ZBA meeting.

 

“Zoning bylaws are not perfect,” he added, and there’s no way to address every conceivable use of a parcel within a given zoning district.

 

The site proposed for Salt Cod Storage lies in a predominantly industrial and business overlay district.  

 

Flatiron says it has committed to building this project solely using union labor, with about 30 union members, many of whom live in Somerset, in attendance at the last ZBA meeting.