Walmley Residents Association

07.02.24

Wiggins Hill BESS Battery Storage System Proposal

Minworth Social Club 

Wednesday 7th February 2024

Information from the meeting

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Attendees

Millie Bowen - Projects (milly@repd.co.uk)

Sarah Harvey (sarah@repd.co.uk)

Dan - Fire Safety

Birmingham City Councillors David Barrie and Ken Wood

local residents

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Information

Website www.repd.co.uk

During times of high supply BESS takes extra energy generated by renewables, ie wind turbines, solar panels etc and stores it, releasing it back to the system when the supply is lower at times of high demand. System black outs and brown outs are maintained by this battery service.

The existing pylon will be connected to the plant. The whole plant will be decommissioned after 40years. The location is as far away as possible from houses, the nearest house is 350 meters away. The switch yard is in the west of the site, this is where the cable will run to.

Each unit is 1.5 meters long x 2 meters high.

Question from a resident

Will there be a bund system around the site to hide the buildings? This may also be safer too.

Answer

There will be 13 strings of 20 cabinets possible on the site. Peddimore is vacant. This site is near the pylon and the land has to be available.

Comment from a resident

This is greenbelt area.

Safety - see slide 8

Only equipment from the safest supplier is used. The battery management system tests the temperature and state of charge/discharge of each battery and the information is sent to the operator. If there is a problem the battery can be shut down remotely.

Question from a resident

If the site is struck by lightening how would fire services respond?

Answer

All is earthed and so it would be safe. There are systems in place so the unit would shut itself down.

Each fire brigade responds differently. Lincolnshire let it burn.

No-one will be on site, everything is managed remotely.

The response times are less than a second.

There is a hydrogen discharge.

If there is a technical malfunction the system takes less than a second to shut down.

Any leak or discharge is maintained by the units and they will shut down.

Gasses will be suppressed. Hydrogen is the main gas.

Lithium batteries have to be submerged for 24 hours to make safe.

The site will be in a secure compound.

Question from a resident

From an ecological aspect, what is the plan to hide this?

Answer

This company are tying into the landscaping which is happening already.

Question from a resident

Why do you decommission after 40 years?

Answer

The land is leased to us for 40 years.

Question from a resident

Where does the extra power come from?

Answer

The power comes directly from the national grid.

Question from a resident

How many sites have you built and over what period of time?

Answer

There are about 200 of these sites in UK.

Oldham and Gerard's Cross were mentioned.

Question from a resident

Have any of the sites caught fire and if so how many fires have there been?

Answer

In countries abroad - 

South Korea has had 20 fires

Australia was mentioned

Epri say up to 2 years ago there had been 33 global incidents.

USA 5 fires - 1 since 2018

The company has chanced the design for battery storage, having learned from fires in the past. Now the units are smaller scale and not stored in cabinets.

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The site will not bring extra traffic to the area as it is unmanned. There will be one visit per month to make checks.

The site will be off Wishaw Lane and will take 9-12 months to build.

Residents from Ox Leys Road who attending the meeting were very unhappy about this site proposal.

Question from a resident

What is the cancer risk to local residents from storing all this extra electricity in our area?

Answer

There is no data on the cancer risk to people. We are not aware of any medical reports. The closest tested system would be a mobile phone mast.

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Councillors David Barrie and Ken Wood

In our opinion the neighbourhood risk is very small. Generally West Midlands Fire Brigade respond well within 5 minutes. Hydrogen released into the atmosphere from a battery park fire is not a big risk, petrol filling stations have more risk. David said he would not have a problem from fire risk.

Question from a resident

Are there any mitigations for people with asthma?

Answer

Dust suppression and acoustic mitigations will be in planning applications.

There will be careful control of the building process. The Peddimore building was not always to the working plan. However, Win Vic and I.M. Properties took action and banned one quite large contractor from site who was not using the correct driving route for lorries.

I.M Properties is requesting planning permission for 302 hectares of land in North Warwickshire to build Thrive Business Park. This site is at the back of Peddimore and runs up to the Belfry. There will need to be a change of opinion to get this agreed.

Question from a resident

When will building start on BESS Battery Park?

Answer

They may get permission next year (2025) The building would start towards the end of 2025.

Safety measures will be updated. The fire services will learn from each other as this a new technology classed as R.N.D, Research and Development.

There was an incident at a battery park in Merseyside, Carnegie Road. The batteries were stored in 50ft long containers. Fire brigade were on site for 48 hours. Contamination was restricted to a very localised area. Radiation is monitored.

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