Saugerties residents weighing the risks of a proposed battery storage facility are also asking what it would mean for their electric bills.
About 35 people attended an information session at The Local on Sept. 14 organized by Sustainable Hudson Valley, a Rhinebeck-based climate nonprofit. Several pressed the presenter on whether adding battery storage to the power grid would lower their monthly costs.
The Saugerties Planning Board is reviewing Albany-based Key Capture Energy’s proposal to build a lithium-ion battery storage facility at 7 Tomsons Road. The session came less than two weeks after residents urged the town board to impose a moratorium on such projects over safety concerns.
Presenter Greg Gallucio, a retired electrical engineer who worked at Underwriters Laboratories, said battery storage could help New York meet growing electricity demand and lower utility bills over the long term. Whether the Saugerties proposal would produce immediate savings for local customers is less clear.
Chris Linsmayer, Key Capture Energy’s director of public affairs, said it was difficult to say whether residents would see an immediate difference in their bills. The facility would serve the wider power grid rather than supply electricity directly to the local community, he said.
Battery energy storage systems, often referred to as BESS, use lithium batteries to store electricity, including power generated from wind and solar. Their role is to stabilize the electric grid, store excess energy in times of low demand and release energy in times of high demand.
Battery energy storage systems store electricity for later use, including power generated by wind and solar. They help balance supply and demand by charging when electricity is plentiful and releasing it when demand rises.
The technology has drawn scrutiny over fire risks. Lithium-ion battery fires can be difficult to extinguish, reignite after appearing to subside, and release harmful gases, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency also reports that improvements in design and quality have reduced failure incidents relative to the amount of storage deployed.
Municipalities across New York, including the Town of Hurley, have enacted moratoriums on battery storage projects amid safety concerns. A battery facility in Warwick had three fires within two years.
At the Sept. 2 Saugerties town board meeting, residents called for a similar pause. Supervisor Fred Costello said battery storage was an allowable use in the town’s R5 zoning district and that preventing Key Capture from proceeding through the planning process would expose the town to a lawsuit.
“If we decided to withdraw Key Capture’s opportunity to the planning process, we would get sued,” Costello said. “I don’t even want to test that water, quite frankly.”
Linsmayer said battery fires were extremely rare and that the proposed facility would have to meet strict state safety requirements. New York adopted updated energy storage safety codes in July 2025.
At the information session, Gallucio focused on the role battery storage could play in meeting the state’s growing electricity needs. He said he supported the technology generally but wasn’t taking a position on individual local projects.
“The main point I want to make about the grid is that it is under intense change right now,” Gallucio said.
A 2024 study by the New York Independent System Operator, which operates the state’s bulk electricity grid, projected that electricity demand would increase by 50% to 90% over its 2023–2042 study period. It identified the electrification of buildings and transportation, along with energy-intensive economic development, as drivers.
Gallucio pointed to data centers as a major source of growing demand and said electricity costs could rise if supply failed to keep pace. He said battery storage could help balance the grid when demand exceeds available electricity in a particular area.
“There’s people who are spending all of their time trying to balance the grid,” Gallucio said. “It needs to be bigger and fatter and more able to transmit energy.”
Gallucio said developers or utility customers could bear the cost of grid upgrades.
Saugerties village resident Gail Gryce said the controversy surrounding the Tomsons Road proposal drew her to the session. She wanted to better understand why battery facilities were being built.
“First, it was the pollution. Then it’s the noise. Then it’s like one thing after another,” Gryce said.
She also questioned whether the state should address electricity demand by stopping data center development.
In July, Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order pausing certain state environmental permits for new hyperscale data centers for up to a year while the state develops a regulatory framework.
“My big thing now is let’s just stop building data centers. That’s another way to begin to address the issue. You know, we’re talking about a moratorium, a moratorium is not enough,” Gryce said.
Isabella Schoonover is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Woodstock, Saugerties, Hurley, and surrounding Ulster County communities. Send correspondence to isabella@theoverlooknews.com.
