The renewable energy company that will build and operate the Tilbury Battery Storage facility on the boundary of Tilbury and Lakeshore is reassuring the communities surrounding it that the facility is safe.
During the unveiling of the facility to be built behind 351 Queen Street North on Friday afternoon, Boralex Senior Development Manager Asier Ania said there are several safety measures in place to prevent the potential for fires and possibly explosions.
Boralex noted the Tesla battery megapacks at the site have temperature monitoring on the battery cells to make sure they do not overheat and have a sparker system which prevents the buildup of potentially explosive gases.
The megapacks are monitored 24/7 by Boralex in their control centre in Québec and Tesla has a 24/7 emergency response centre, according to Boralex.
"In cases where the safe operation could be impacted, the affected Megapack will be automatically disconnected,' said Boralex.
Ania said the project will be built in the safest possible manner and they chose batteries that were built within all of the regulations, codes, and standards that have a good track record.
Ania said Lakeshore firefighters will also be trained by the company's consultants, who are ex-firefighters, to be able to respond to an emergency, if it arises.
"We've hired third party experts that are helping us draft this (an emergency response plan) in concert with the local fire department. So, that if anything were to happen even after all of the preventative measures that I was mentioning, that the individuals that are responding understand what they're getting into in terms of that situation," said Ania.
Ania noted he's not aware of any incidents at any of their other battery storage projects.
The Tilbury Battery Storage project will consist of 89 batteries in containers, inverters, medium voltage transformers, gravel internal access roads, buried collector and communication cabling, and a small transmission substation.
The facility will be directly connected to nearby Hydro One infrastructure and will provide reliable power capacity by drawing and storing energy from the grid during off-peak periods and releasing it back to the Ontario grid when energy demand is at its peak.
The Independent Electricity System Operator has indicated that the province will need at least 60 per cent more energy in the next 25 years and battery storage facilities will help keep up with the demand for more power.
Construction should begin in early October and the facility is planned to begin operating in late 2025.
The 150 jobs created by this project will be almost all construction jobs with the exception of two or three preventative maintenance and controls and monitoring workers.