The Town of Lockport will hold two hearings on July 8 for proposed local laws banning data centers and utility-scale battery energy storage systems for 18 months.
Supervisor Mark Crocker said if approved, the moratoriums will give the town time to develop and pass updated laws covering the two types of developments.
Earlier this month, the New York State Legislature passed a one-year moratorium on new data center construction, making it the first state in the nation to do so. The bill needs the signature of Gov. Kathy Hochul to become law.
“We weren’t aware that the state was working on that,” Crocker said Wednesday, “but ours will be 18 months.”
In its proposed moratorium, the town stated that data centers can change the character of communities, and may be constructed “at a scale and density incompatible with surrounding land uses.”
The town listed additional considerations of “substantial energy consumption, reliance on inefficient or outdated energy generation sources, continuous noise impacts on neighboring properties, and significant water demands that may adversely affect existing water distribution systems.”
Crocker said the development of data centers has grown across the country and county, and the town board wanted to evaluate its laws.
“We’ve had a number of companies approach us,” Crocker said. “They consume a lot of electricity. Unfortunately for consumers, they drive electric prices up. We want to protect our residents against that. . . . Data centers don’t create many jobs.”
The town also proposed a ban on utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), which are operated to capture energy and later release it into the energy grid for commercial purposes.
The proposed law states, “The Town recognizes potential for battery failures, thermal runaway events, fires, and release of hazardous materials, and the challenges associated with emergency response and fire suppression.”
In 2024, Royalton, Somerset, and the Town and Village of Wilson passed moratoriums for utility-scale BESS. Cambria was considering taking a similar action earlier this year.
“The fire companies aren’t for it,” Crocker said of the battery facilities.
In 2024, Town of Wilson Supervisor Tony Evans said their board took action on battery storage systems due to a 2023 incident in Chaumont, Jefferson County, where four lithium battery storage trailers caught fire at a Convergent Energy solar installation. The fire lasted six days.
Chaumont Fire Chief William Lipczynski told WWNY TV at the time, “A normal structure fire is we’re going to bring in the water, we’re going to put it out. We’re working with wood, glue, stuff like that, and we’re able to put it out. With lithium-ion batteries, they’re a beast of their own, and the water, you just can’t control it with it.”