THE proposed Macedon Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) was discussed at last week’s Macedon Ranges Shire Council (MRSC) meeting, with councillors concerned about the bushfire risk.
Councillors were united in calling for further consideration of the BESS location, given the risk of a deadly bushfire if something went wrong.
They passed a motion requesting that council write to the relevant minister to reconsider the plans and take the fire danger into account.
They also acknowledged that advances in the technology made a fault extremely unlikely, but said the potential fire risk still needed to be considered.
“Macedon was heavily impacted by the Ash Wednesday fires and anything that could increase the fire risk is of obvious concern to the community,” Cr Alison Joseph said.
“There’s been a number of fires associated with BESS facilities both here and overseas and these facilities can also be impacted by fire which can lead to a thermal runaway.
“The motion requests that council write to the relevant minister raising the concerns of establishing such a facility in what is one of the most fire prone areas of the state and ask this to be taken into consideration in the assessment of the proposal.”
Councillor Andrew Scanlon acknowledged advances in the technology but said safety remained a concern.
“It should be noted the technology in this field is vastly improved with in-house monitoring systems and dedicated staff identifying system anomalies in real time,” he said.
Councillor Jennifer Anderson questioned whether the benefits to the community would justify the risk.
“For me, it’s also what does the community get back? Should this application go ahead? What is the benefit to our community? Should we be raising funds from that because they are making money out of storing that energy that may not be used locally? So that’s an important question for me as well,” she said.
One member of the public gallery remained frustrated, saying: “It would be really nice to have the opportunity to be advised prior to just finding out at the end of September that this was proposed because there’s been no consultation with the community at all, it’s abysmal.”
The decision on the proposal rests with Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny.