Plainwell battery storage project heads to planning commission for a vote

ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. — Plans are moving forward to bring a battery energy storage system (BESS) to Allegan County.

The BESS, proposed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), would be located off Riverview Drive in Plainwell.

BESS facilities store electricity, similar to how a phone battery stores power, delivering it when it’s needed the most.

“We are in one of the communities where the electrical grid needs to be stabilized, and that’s one of the reasons why this whole area is being targeted,” Gun Plain Township Supervisor Mike Vandenberg said. “It helps stabilize the electrical grid, so when the power goes down we have power here.”

Vandenberg told News Channel 3 there has been confusion in the community about the proposal.

“A lot of them [residents] think if you get a battery center or battery storage facility, you get a data center that they go hand in hand, that’s just not the case,” Vandenberg said.

Despite a data center not being built, residents are still voicing their frustrations about the BESS at township meetings.

Some angry residents have even placed signs in their yards protesting the BESS.

Bill Knopf lives off Riverview Drive, near where the proposed BESS would go. His biggest concern is safety.

“I’m really opposed to it,” Knopf said. “There are lithium batteries, and I’m aware of the fact that lithium’s have fire potential.”

“I can see where they are coming from, nobody wants it in their backyard,” Vandenberg said. “But when you are looking at everything, you have to follow the rules.”

There are safety regulations CIP would have to abide by including meeting national fire and electrical safety codes and not being more than 100 feet within property lines.

The planning commission is expected to vote on site plans May 20. Vandenberg said the township doesn’t hold all the power.

If the planning commission denies plans for the BESS, CIP cans still go to the state for approval.

“That’s just one more thing that we have to deal with at the local level, we’re losing more and more power to the state,” Vandenberg said.

Gun Plain Charter Township, MI Citizen’s Coalition, a group opposed to the BESS is holding a meeting Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. at the Gun Plain Township Hall.