NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 54

ESS
Similar steps will be taken in Sanford,
Maine, when the town sees its
first ESS installed later this year. " The
company working on the installation
has been very willing to work with us, "
said Patrick Cotter, the Sanford fire
marshal. " Part of the site plan that's
been approved requires the company to
do classroom and onsite training for all
of our fire department staff. "
Before any of these partnerships can
be made or data tapped into, though,
fire departments must be apprised
of projects to install ESS in their
jurisdictions. The degree to which
fire department involvement in the
ESS permitting process seems to vary
widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
" I don't think anyone is even sure of
who the authority having jurisdiction is
in some cases, " said McCormack. " Is it
the fire department? Is it the building
department? Is it the state or the city? "
When a project to install an ESS in
Chesapeake, Virginia, was proposed in
2020, the ESS company applying for
the permit told the city it would work
with the local fire department to ensure
preparedness for emergencies, but
members of the city's planning board
seemingly had no information verifying
that was true when it came time
to vote on the project. " The info we've
been provided is limited, " one planning
board member said, before voting to
delay the approval process. " I wasn't
even aware of what kind of batteries
were being used. I'm a firm believer in
renewable energy, but right now, with
the information I've got, I can't make a
good decision. " The project was eventually
approved, but not before several
months of delays and stipulations that
an emergency response plan be written
by the ESS company together with the
Chesapeake Fire Department.
Asked whether a database to track
ESS installations across a specific
city, region, or state would be useful
to the Boston Fire Department or
other departments in closing some
of these regulatory gaps, McCormack
answered with a resounding yes. " It
would be great if we knew where these
installations were located in the city,
especially for state-owned properties, "
he said. " It would be easy to manage
54 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
the information that the state would
provide us because we already have a
database in place for when a building
has some special construction feature,
such as a truss roof. "
Towski agreed that such a database
would be helpful for Cambridge firefighters.
" Boy, would it be nice if there
were a database of ESS locations that
could also be linked in real time to the
data coming from individual battery
management systems to give the fire service
a heads up on what they might be
getting into, " he said. But he also raised
an important question: Why single out
ESS? " We don't currently track the locations
of generators or other traditional
energy systems, " he said.
'We need these systems
for the resiliency they
provide to the power grid.
But these companies
have to involve us so we
can help make these
systems safer.'
Already, tensions can emerge between
the fire service and ESS companies. In a
blog published last year, an attorney at
the Boston-based law firm Foley Hoag
wrote that " fire code provisions ... can
make permitting a battery storage component
unnecessarily complex, drive up
the project costs, and delay energization. "
The blog was celebrating the news
that the Massachusetts Fire Appeals
Board had recently shot down a local
fire chief's opposition to a proposed ESS
in his town. If ESS projects are placed
under further scrutiny through inclusion
in unique databases that other energy
projects aren't, that could cause tensions
to rise.
" I know of a particular proposal for an
ESS in the northern part of the state that
was met with so much resistance that
the energy company packed up and left, "
Towski said. " I don't want it to be like
that, because we need these systems for
the resiliency they provide to the power
grid. But these companies have to play
ball with us. They have to involve us so
we can help make these systems safer. "
More widespread awareness and
adoption of NFPA 855 is a good place
to start when it comes to creating
safer, AHJ-approved ESS installations.
The document-which has a new edition
coming out later this year (see " A
Revamped ESS Standard " as part of
this story)-outlines ESS design and
installation provisions such as prohibiting
the construction of systems
on a combustible roof and ensuring
responders can access ESS sites.
In many cases, McCormack said, site
owners and ESS companies are open to
amending design plans when presented
with sections of NFPA 855 and reasons
why a previous design idea may not be
optimal for safety. " There was a hospital
we worked with that wanted to
put an ESS on the roof, " he said, " so we
came back to them asking if there's a
reason it needs to be on the roof. They
said no, so we asked if they could put
it in a parking lot and that's what they
did. The last thing you want is a fire on
the roof of a hospital. "
Cotter shared similar experiences
from helping plan the Sanford, Maine,
installation. " Even though NFPA 855
hasn't been adopted in any way in
the state, we used that document as
a guide, and we'll continue using it,
and the ESS company was more than
accepting of that, " he said.
So far, in Massachusetts, sections of
NFPA 855 have only been incorporated
into state guidance documents-in
other words, they're not enforceable.
Other states have taken things a step
further. Since 2019, for instance, the
California Fire Code has included language
from NFPA 855.
McCormack and Towski remain
hopeful that as ESS becomes a more
ubiquitous technology, fire safety will
be on more people's radars, and that
will translate to more opportunities
for responder training and stronger
regulatory measures that allow for fire
service input. " The good thing is word
is spreading about ESS fire safety and
about 855, " Towski said. " Some ESS
companies are starting to look at that
document and starting to play by those
rules without us even having to tell
them to. "
ANGELO VERZONI is associate editor at
NFPA Journal.
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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