Somerset battery storage hearing on the Montaup site moves to the Fairfield Inn Thursday
At its Oct. 15 session the board heard an updated toxic gas study and the developer's fire protection plan, and members pressed for more time before any vote. Another session is set for Nov. 12.
SOMERSET Somerset's Zoning Board of Appeals picks up its hearing on a commercial battery storage plant at the former Montaup power plant site Thursday, Nov. 5, at 6 p.m., and the session has moved. The board's first agenda for that night, stamped by the town clerk Oct. 16, set it at the Old Town Hall. A revised agenda, stamped Oct. 30, puts it in the first-floor meeting room of the Fairfield Inn and Suites, 602 G.A.R. Highway. The petition has been on zoning board agendas since at least Aug. 6.
Somerset Energy Storage LLC is asking the board to approve a planned development under Section 6.10 of the zoning bylaw so it can build a battery energy storage system at 1606 Riverside Ave., land owned by Somerset Riverside 1606 LLC in the Industrial Zoning District and the Business Industrial Overlay District. At the board's Oct. 15 session, Flatiron Energy's lead presenter called the property the Salt Cod site. The coal-fired Montaup plant on Riverside Avenue closed Jan. 1, 2010, and the site covers 38 acres, WSAR reported, naming Flatiron as a Boulder, Colorado, company.
What the board heard Oct. 15
That session, also held at the Fairfield Inn so consultants could take part by video, was given over to safety, according to the town's recording on Somerset Access TV's YouTube channel. Hazard Dynamics, the consulting firm that wrote Flatiron's plume study, said it had rebuilt its toxic gas model using a new large-scale fire test of the battery units Flatiron now plans to install, and had added hydrogen fluoride to the gases it modeled.
The model assumed one unit burning at its peak heat output without letup and a steady wind of about 23 mph, which the consultant described as the 99th percentile wind at the nearest weather station. At about head height, 2 meters off the ground, neither carbon monoxide nor hydrogen fluoride reached the federal exposure guideline levels the study used, he said. At 5 meters, about the height of a second-floor balcony, carbon monoxide reached the level tied to serious health effects only within about 7.5 feet of a unit, and hydrogen fluoride reached the level for temporary irritation within about 90 feet. He said that zone did not reach the homes to the south or west or the businesses to the east, and that benzene, hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and formaldehyde stayed under every threshold.
Board members asked about winds stronger than 23 mph coming down the bay, about calm days, and about smoke drifting toward the Stevens Street neighborhood to the south, homes and businesses to the west, and the public safety complex and the high school to the northwest. The consultant said the health limits are measured over 30 minutes, so the model uses steady winds rather than gusts. He said smoke was outside the study's scope, and he expected it to rise above nearby homes. In light winds the plume rises, he said, and the study ran low wind cases too before presenting the worst case it found.
The fire protection plan
Flatiron's fire safety director described what the company says it has agreed to with the Somerset Fire Department: 35-foot Fire Rover masts with thermal detection, aimed over the units and controllable remotely by a monitoring center or the fire department (five in all, the response plan consultant said later); hydrants fitted with fixed fire monitors, or water cannons, mostly along the west and south sides; and a staging area off County Street, which the department asked for, so engines can park off the street. Carbon monoxide and other gas detectors around the edge of the site would report to a panel at the staging area. If readings rise toward Stevens Street, crews could use the water systems to push gas and smoke north toward the substation and away from homes, he said. Flatiron has also agreed to pay for portable gas monitors for the department through its host community agreement.
A consultant from Energy Safety Response Group, which wrote the site's emergency response plan, said Flatiron has committed to build to the 2026 edition of the national battery storage standard, NFPA 855, which he said goes beyond the edition Massachusetts requires. He said the plan stays marked draft until the site is built, walked and the fire department trained, with yearly retraining and inspections. Asked how fast one of the group's experts could reach Somerset in an emergency, he said about three hours at most, with help by phone the whole time, and that the group is adding staff closer by.
More time before a vote
Flatiron's lead presenter told the board that Jensen Hughes, one of the peer reviewers, had issued its final memo on the first part of its review and expected to send about 11 comments on the plume study, and that the company expected to finish peer review before Oct. 29. Flatiron is compiling the conditions it has already agreed to with the reviewers and the fire department for the board to consider. Members said the police chief had also sent conditions, including cameras on the site during construction.
One board member said that even with every review done, the board would need a meeting to go over the conditions before a decision, and members asked the company to extend the deadline for a decision to Nov. 30. A Flatiron representative said the company would prefer an earlier date because of the holidays and asked whether the board could meet Nov. 5 and Nov. 12, or Nov. 12 and Nov. 19. Members said they could make Nov. 5 and Nov. 12. One member said that if the board were forced to decide before it was ready, that member would probably vote no. Another pointed out that only three members can vote on the petition, so a single absence could stall it. The talk ended with Nov. 30 described as a backstop, with no meeting planned that day, and the board continued the hearing to Oct. 29.
The petition was on the board's Oct. 29 agenda. The revised Nov. 5 agenda, stamped by the clerk Oct. 30, lists the hearing again along with the minutes of the board's Oct. 15, Oct. 22 and Oct. 29 meetings, if ready. A Nov. 12 session at the Old Town Hall is already posted.
Under Section 6.10 of the bylaw as the town posts it online, no permit for a planned development is granted unless the board approves a site plan. The board refers that plan to the Planning Board for a report and may act once it has the report or 30 days after the referral, whichever comes first. A lot next to homes needs a continuous wall of solid appearance or a tight evergreen hedge six feet high, or, with the board's approval, a landscaped strip at least 25 feet wide.
How to follow the hearing
The agenda lists the session as a public hearing under Chapter 40A, the state zoning law, held in person, and says the meeting will be recorded and posted to YouTube. Members said Oct. 15 that the board took public comment at an earlier session of this hearing. The application and plans are on file at the town clerk's office.
SC360 first reported the battery storage hearings in October: Somerset Taco Bell plan goes to two boards Oct. 20 and 22; battery storage hearing runs into November.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact comes from the town's first and revised Nov. 5 zoning board agendas, its Aug. 6, Oct. 29 and Nov. 12 agendas, the zoning bylaw and the town's own recording of the board's Oct. 15 session on Somerset Access TV, all listed below, plus one WSAR report credited for the plant's history. We read the agendas and bylaw and watched and transcribed the recording on Nov. 1. We did not keep the audio. We name no speaker from the recording, since their names are not in a written record, and we quote no line from it word for word. The study figures are the consultant's own, as presented to the board. The town had not posted minutes or a recording of the Oct. 29 session as of Nov. 1, so this story does not say what happened at it. The bylaw text is the edition the town posts, with amendments through May 20, 2019. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar and each claim against the records. Not heard: the town planner and Flatiron Energy; any comment they give will be added to this story.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (9)
- Zoning Board of Appeals revised meeting agenda, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026 (clerk stamp Oct. 30, 2026, 9:50 a.m.)Town of Somerset, 1 page, scanned, shown as amended Oct. 30, 2026, 11:01 a.m., in the Agenda Center. New location at the Fairfield Inn and Suites, 6 p.m., the petition, owner, map and lot, Section 6.10, districts, recording to YouTube, minutes of Oct. 15, 22 and 29. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Zoning Board of Appeals meeting agenda, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, first version (clerk stamp Oct. 16, 2026, 12:39 p.m.)Town of Somerset, 1 page, scanned, listed under Previous Versions in the Agenda Center. Same petition, Somerset Old Town Hall, 1480 County St., 6 p.m. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Zoning Board of Appeals revised meeting agenda, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026 (clerk stamp Aug. 4, 2026)Town of Somerset, 1 page, scanned. The same petition, Somerset Middle School auditorium, 6 p.m. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Zoning Board of Appeals meeting agenda, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026 (clerk stamp Oct. 16, 2026)Town of Somerset, 1 page, scanned. Same petition, Old Town Hall, 1480 County St., 6 p.m. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Zoning Board of Appeals revised agenda, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026Town of Somerset, 1 page, scanned. The Oct. 29 session on the same petition. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Somerset Zoning Board of Appeals, October 15, 2026 (Somerset Access TV, posted Oct. 16, 2026)Town meeting recording, 2 hours 2 minutes. The plume study results, the fire protection plan, the response plan, the peer review status, the extension discussion and the continuance. Watched and transcribed Nov. 1, 2026.
- Town of Somerset Zoning By-Law (edition with amendments through May 20, 2019)Town of Somerset, 83 pages. Section 6.10, Planned Developments: site plan approval, Planning Board referral, wall, hedge or landscaped strip next to homes. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Former Montaup power plant could be site of battery storage in Somerset worth $50M a yearWSAR, Pete Braley. The plant closing Jan. 1, 2010, the 38-acre site and Flatiron Energy of Boulder, Colorado. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Somerset Power Plant (Montaup Power), Somerset MassachusettsWikimedia Commons, John Phelan, May 26, 2010, CC BY 3.0. Lead photo. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
