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Hopkins explained that they need a use variance because this property is currently zoned Neighborhood Commercial. It was previously zoned Industrial. This is part of the hardship to the existing property owner. On May 1st the ZBA application was submitted with thorough supporting documentation. The variance they are seeking pertains to section 280-393 of the zoning code that states “tier 3 battery energy storage systems are only permitted in industrial zoned areas through the issuance of a special use permit and subject to the uniform code and site plan requirements.” The Zoning Board is not the only board that will have to approve this; there needs to be approvals from the Planning Board and Building Department. This was presented to the Planning Board on May 20th on an informal basis. They were comfortable with the presentation to the Zoning Board this evening. The SEQR process is underway. As they receive any comments back they will address those in writing and will give copies to the Zoning Board and Planning Board. They have entered into interconnection agreements with National Grid as of September 4, 2025. Those agreements state National Grid has bought into what is being proposed and they are a well-known utility company. Welch stated the technology they would be using is the Tesla Mega Pack 2XL. This is an iron phosphate battery. Iron phosphate has excellent energy density and the safety record is excellent. It will be monitored and there will be thermal imaging and cameras to make sure nothing is going on in there. It is not one battery that is sitting inside these cabinets—it is actually thousands of cells inside each cabinet. Each individual cell is about 6 in by 6.5 in by 2 in thick. The cell goes into a tray and the trays go into a module, 3 trays per module, and 24 modules per cabinet with containment walls between them. The critical part is the battery management system. This is what monitors the conditions of every single battery at all times. It sends the information over to the monitoring center that Tesla runs. The top of the cabinet has both heating and cooling so the optimal temperature can be kept. These are designed to be 5 megawatts and discharge over a 4 hour period. Every day when the peak load comes, this would come in, and it would provide power into the local grid, and easing the load from having to turn on additional generating assets. There will be less of a need to build more transmission lines, more substations, more conversion and distribution lines because they are meeting that demand at the highest stress period from within, destressing all of those systems. The peak time is anywhere between 2pm and 8pm; from 3-7pm is when the load gets the highest in New York. The rest of the time and overnight the cost of power goes down. We have a lot of nuclear plants and different facilities that don’t want to turn down at night. So when that load goes down and they keep generating, that becomes a way to use that low cost power to charge these batteries, and then deliver that low cost power later on during that peak period. Hopkins stated that usually when he comes before the board it’s very clear—either a use variance governed by Town Law section 267 B2B or an area variance governed by Town Law section 267 B3B. This project is a little bit different because it is governed by a different test. That test was first established all the way back in 1993 in the case called Consolidated Edison Company of New York vs. Hoffman which dealt with cellular technology. The public utility standard is if the company provides an essential service, which this is, we need to show the following criteria: (1) the relief is required to render safe and adequate service (2) there are compelling reasons, economic or otherwise, for needing the variance. This commonly referred