Planning Commission approves East Mission Road battery storage project

The county's Planning Commission approved a 40-megawatt battery energy storage facility in the 1400 block of East Mission Road.

The official 7-0 Planning Commission vote June 26 was to deny an appeal of the Feb. 5 Zoning Administrator approval and grant the Minor Use Permit for the AES Energy Storage project. The Feb. 5 decision of Zoning Administrator Eric Lardy also adopted an environmental Mitigated Negative Declaration, and the Planning Commission denial of the appeal upholds the MND.

Under state law an electricity company must deploy energy storage as part of their system. Battery-based energy storage provides flexibility to the electrical grid by storing energy produced during periods when supply would exceed capacity and discharging energy to the grid during periods of high demand. AES Energy Storage will build the 40-megawatt facility, which will be the largest battery storage facility in the San Diego region and will sell the facility to San Diego Gas & Electric after it becomes operational.

The 4.22-acre project site on the south side of East Mission Road has M52 Limited Industrial zoning, and the general plan land use designation is Limited Impact Industrial. The energy facility will include 16 battery storage containers along with off-site components. The application for a Minor Use Permit was filed in January 2019.

The battery storage containers will be on individual concrete equipment pads. Each container will be 63 feet long and 12 feet wide, or 756 square feet, and 13 feet high. Two additional parcels will support a 16-foot-wide access driveway, infiltration basins, and a 30-foot-wide underground utility easement.

The battery energy storage facility will connect to San Diego Gas & Electric's existing 69,000-volt Avocado Substation approximately 450 feet to the west, and approximately 630 feet of underground cable and vaults will run along the easement to the south. A chain link fence 8 feet high with three strands of barbed wire on top will surround the battery containers, and the surrounding area will also include landscaping to provide visual screening for nearby residents.

The project is designed to be in operation for 20 years. After that time most of the electrical equipment including breakers, transformers, and inverters will be removed and recycled. Before the issuance of a building permit AES Energy Storage must have a Hazardous Materials Business Plan approved by the county's Department of Environmental Health which will address the proper handling of the equipment removal.

The Mitigated Negative Declaration was released for a 30-day public review period in December 2019. Four comments were received including one by Arnold Rashkin, who owns the industrial park on the west side of the site. The Feb. 5 Zoning Administrator hearing included multiple public comments including one from Rashkin.

A Zoning Administrator decision can be appealed to the Planning Commission, and Rashkin filed an appeal Feb. 18. Rashkin's appeal alleged that the fuel modification zone extended onto his property, that the environmental analysis was piecemeal rather than complete because the proposed expansion of the nearby Avocado Substation was not analyzed, that the private road must be improved to public standards to meet county guidelines, that a public road easement should be provided, and that an incorrect easement is shown on the plans.

The Planning Commission found that the project complies with the minimum 100-foot fuel modification zone. Although not all that zone is within the specific parcel, the zone extends east onto property also owned by AES Energy Storage and does not extend onto Rashkin's property. When AES Energy Storage transfers the project parcel to SDG&E an easement will be granted to allow SDG&E to perform fuel modification activities to maintain the required buffer.

Although the California Environmental Quality Act prohibits utilizing separate phases or components of a project, the expansion of the Avocado Substation was approved in 2017 and the determination was that no significant impacts would occur.

The Avocado Substation, which has been operational for 43 years, is the primary substation for Fallbrook. The renovations to replace aging equipment and bring the substation to current SDG&E standards began in 2018 and are expected to be complete in spring 2021. The Mitigated Negative Declaration for the AES Energy Storage project analyzed the off-site components as well as the parcel subject to the Minor Use Permit.

The county requires a public road if property is to be subdivided or if at least 2,500 daily trips would be expected on a road. Neither of those conditions exist for the battery storage facility; two to four trips a month for maintenance are anticipated once the project is completed.

The tentative parcel map for Rashkin's property was approved by the county's Planning and Environmental Review Board in 1985 (PERB was abolished in 2004, and the Planning Commission now handles situations previously under PERB preview); because the Rashkin property was subdivided and generated more than 2,500 daily trips a public road was required. A 60-foot easement over the Rashkin property was in the original plans but was removed and is not part of the current project. Rashkin can access his property through a private road connecting to East Mission Road, so no easement to Rashkin's property is required from the AES Energy Storage site.

In October 2019, the Fallbrook Community Planning Group voted 12-0 to recommend approval of the project with conditions, which have been addressed.