(Danville) — Danville leaders have forwarded plans for a second battery storage facility.
Planning Director Renee Burton updated the Planning Commission Monday on the proposed 12-megawatt battery storage project on Mount Cross Road where a former propane plant closed down back in the fifties. “It will mimic the Monument Street facility in design, but will not have the same level of visibility to the public,” Burton said. “The equipment for the Mount Cross Road facilty will be behind the existing structure and down the natural slope of the property. This arrangement will mean less visibility for passers-by and for neighboring property owners.”
Lightshift Energy, who owns and operates the 10-and-a-half megawatt plant on Monument Street, is proposing a purchase power agreement with the city for the new facility.
Ricky Elder with Lightshift says the facility would save the city and it’s utility customers up to 20 million dollars over its life. “It will be used by Danville Utilities to do what’s called ‘peak shaving’,” Elder told the Commission. “In other words, it will be able to save on costly transmission charges as it relates to bills the utility would have to pay in order to be able to procure capacity from the power market. Very simply, it saves money.”
And Elder says the neighbors on Mount Cross likely won’t notice a thing. “The facility will be at the back of the site which is downhill from the road,” Elder said.
Last week, the project got both a 750-thousand dollar grant and a 750-thousand dollar loan from the Virginia Tobacco Commission.
Danville City Council will vote on the facility next month.