HALSTEAD, Kan. — The City of Halstead has drafted regulations for Battery Energy Storage Systems and those will be looked at by their City Council on Monday.
In October 2023, Concurrent LLC announced the submission of a transmission-level battery energy storage system (BESS) interconnection application to Independent System Operator (ISO) Southwest Power Pool (SPP) in Halstead, Kansas in the Halstead Industrial Park.
The project, named Tallgrass Prairie Energy Center, has a planned capacity of 200-megawatts(MW) and up to 800-megawatt-hours(MWh), enough energy to power approximately 200,000 homes for up to 4 hours.
The Lithium-Ion battery facility, which would electrically interconnect into Evergy’s transmission system, will help to relieve excessive demand on the electrical grid by storing renewable energy being generated at times where energy demand is low and allowing it to be delivered when demand is high. This enables the system to function as a critical backup resource to other types of generation that help to keep electricity costs down and prevent power outages.
They hope to have the plant up and running by 2027 and it is expected to create 50 new jobs. You can read the draft regulations here.
The public hearing before the Halstead City Council is Monday at 6:30 p.m.