Warwick Valley superintendent demands changes following lithium-ion battery fire
The system is a modern replacement for power plants that have been criticized for being expensive and using fossil fuels. Their purpose is to help prevent blackouts during periods when residents are using more energy than normal.
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Warwick Valley School District officials addressed Thursday the issue of lithium-ion batteries that burned on their campus.
News 12 reported on two recent incidents – a dayslong fire at a storage site on County Route 1 and fumes being emitted from a storage site on Church Street Extension. Now, officials say they don’t want that kind of battery to be sent to them anymore.
There are still months of investigation ahead, but the district engineer gave the first idea of what may have gone wrong.
He suspects the housing that protects the batteries failed and moisture got inside, as both fires occurred during storms at two places. One is district-owned land where a fire burned for days, and the other had alarms going off at a facility on private property on Church Street.
The system is a modern replacement for power plants that have been criticized for being expensive and using fossil fuels. Their purpose is to help prevent blackouts during periods when residents are using more energy than normal.
The battery manufacturer and system operator have not had issues like this before, but this is a new version of the system known as the Centipede, which was first used in Warwick.
School Superintendent David Leach said he sent a strongly worded letter to the company's legal counsel saying they do not want the Centipede anymore. The reason district property even houses it is because the district leases the land, which could account for millions of dollars.
Leach said the lease went through a stringent approval process.
Everything is offline for now and the district had an expert test to make sure schools are safe, which it intends to bill the energy company for.
Some parents were glad to hear about the testing, but they still have many concerns, particularly people who live even closer to the site than the school.
Another big theme in the meeting was the board's disappointment the energy company, Convergent, which denied an invitation to attend at the last minute.
"I let them know I felt they were missing an opportunity in terms of trying to reestablish some trust," Leach said.
The company did submit a letter that Leach read which said it will attend August's meeting to provide "a more substantive update".
There are at least three independent firms investigating the fires, including one the district hired.
