The Board of Supervisors (BoS) of Orange County, California, has enacted an emergency moratorium on the approval of any new BESS facilities proposed for unincorporated areas of the county in order to protect the “health, safety and welfare” of its residents.
In a letter sent to the BoS on January 22 2025, Vice Chair Katrina Foley requested the Board pass the emergency ordinance at its January 28 meeting in response to the recent devastating blaze at Vistra’s Moss Landing Energy Storage in Monterey County, and other recent high profile BESS fires.
Orange County, California’s third most populous county, is already home to several operational battery storage facilities, including Hecate Grid’s 20MW/80MWh Johanna standalone BESS project that was brought online during 2021.
County to develop new BESS regulations
In light of recent utility-scale lithium-ion battery fires, and in the absence of any current county-level BESS-specific siting guidelines, the temporary ordinance restricts the approval of any new storage facilities for a six-month period whilst Orange County officials develop a set of new BESS regulations.
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Within the recent letter, Foley stated the implementation of new regulations weren’t only in response to recent BESS fires, but also due to the whole of Orange County now classified as being in a drought, with the State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection identifying large portions of the county as being high or very high fire hazard severity zones.
The ordinance instructs public works staff to coordinate with the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) to issue a report to the BoS no later than 10 days prior to the expiration of the moratorium, recommending measures to alleviate the “hazardous conditions related to BESS facilities”.
Although regulation specifics weren’t mentioned, the county could implement new measures such as minimum setback rules and zone-specific guidelines as recently adopted by lawmakers in Ottawa, Canada.
Moratorium won’t conflict with CEC approval process
Although the recent ordinance prevents developers obtaining approval for new BESS facilities with Orange County’s BoS, the moratorium won’t conflict with the California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) state approval process, as permitted under Assembly Bill (AB) 205.
Signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022, the bill increased the permitting authority of the CEC to also cover battery storage facilities larger than 200MWh in capacity.
The state-ran permitting route has been available to developers for a few years now, however, only a handful have pursued this option. As reported by Energy-Storage.news, a joint venture made up of Capstone Infrastructure and Eurowind Energy is seeking approval from the CEC to construct a 400MW/3,200MWh standalone BESS – dubbed Potentia-Viridi – located in Alameda County.
After the recent fire at Moss Landing, some California lawmakers have proposed to relinquish the CEC’s siting authority over BESS projects entirely.. As covered by Energy-Storage.news last week, local politician and California Assembly member, Dawn Addis, introduced AB 303 to the state legislature that proposes to remove the ability for developers to obtain approval for projects with the CEC.
Addis’ “Battery Energy Safety & Accountability Act” would also prohibit BESS facilities from being located in environmentally protected regions, as well as introduce mandatory minimum setbacks for battery projects from sensitive receptors.
Moratorium draws support from incorporated Orange County city
Although the moratorium only applies to unincorporated areas of Orange County, two incorporated cities in the county have already enacted moratoria on BESS facilities, including the City of San Juan Capistrano. The moratorium is expected to remain in place until April 2025 whilst officials develop new regulations.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news, officials at the City of San Juan Capistrano are currently embroiled in conflict with Engie, after the French multinational company turned to the CEC’s approval process after a rezoning request for its 1GWh Compass Energy Storage project was denied by city officials.
Council member for San Juan Capaistrano, Howard Hart, expressed their “enthusiastic support” for Foley’s proposed moratorium on BESS facilities for unincorporated Orange County, in an email attached to the county’s recent January 28 BoS meeting agenda packet.
Although a council member for an incorporated city within Orange County, Hart encouraged the county BoS to add their voices to the “growing chorus of opposition to this ill advised proposal” – referring to Engie’s Compass project.
The online docket for Engie’s Compass project on the CEC’s website has now garnered over 750 comments from the public, with the vast majority filed in opposition against the development.
Orange County not the first to implement new BESS regulations
Officials at Orange County aren’t the first large jurisdiction to respond to recent BESS fires, after officials at California’s second most populous county, San Diego County, voted last year to develop new BESS standards. However, unlike Orange County, officials at San Diego County voted against implementing a ban on the approval of new BESS facilities.
Instead of a ban, officials voted to implement a set of temporary guidelines for developers which included minimum setbacks for BESS projects nearby residential areas
