Patrice Payne has her evacuation plan ready in case of a fire at a planned lithium battery storage unit less than a mile from her house in the Oxon Hill area of Maryland’s Prince George’s County.
She would grab a ladder from her shed, climb over her backyard fence and make a run for the highway through the shrubs. On her way out of the house, she would scoop up two carefully packed bags of medical supplies for her 30-year-old diabetic son. At least that’s the plan.
“I don’t think I’m in shape for jumping over a fence,” said Payne, a Black woman in her early 50s. “But I’d take a few bruises and get away rather than inhaling toxic fumes from the burning lithium battery.”
For almost two years, Payne and other Prince George’s residents have been pushing back against the utility company Pepco’s planned installation of a 1-megawatt energy storage system with a lithium battery component, pointing out that the county and Pepco officials have not addressed their safety concerns in case of an accidental fire or a similar emergency situation.
In a statement, a Pepco representative said that the utility considered several alternate locations during planning of the project and then re-evaluated the chosen location after the community members expressed their concerns. The ultimate location for battery storage was selected because the existing substation “is expected to exceed its capacity in 2027 and the battery will allow Pepco to defer the need to build a new substation in the area, which helps keep customer rates affordable,” he said.
The system “exceeds current Prince George’s County and Maryland codes and will help ensure the highest level of safety,” he said, adding that the placement of the battery energy storage system would allow the utility to advance “energy equity for the residents of the surrounding neighborhood.” Local fire and rescue agencies will respond in the event of an emergency such as a fire, the statement said, and “a training program will be established prior to the installation of the system.”
Click here to read the rest of Beth article written by Aman Azhar over at Inside Climate News
