An open letter to the Highland County commissioners
To the editor:
(Note: This was a public letter to the Highland County Board of Commissioners, and copied to the Concord Township Trustees and the New Market Township Trustees.)
Dear Highland County Commissioners,
On May 6, 2026, a meeting was held at Southern States Community College on Hobart Drive in Hillsboro with representatives from NextEra Energy as a pre-application meeting with the public regarding their proposed BESS battery energy storage system facility they plan to install in New Market Township on Mad River Road.
This is referred to as their Barr Facility, Ohio Power Siting Board Case #26-0498-EL-BGN.
The Ohio Power Citing Board had a table there with representatives and pamphlets and general information papers to hand out. NextEra had many representatives who had first name only tags, but no business cards. I primarily spoke with Courtney Tompkins, a late stage developer, and Dylan Borchers, an attorney and partner with Bricker Grayson Wyatt of Columbus, Ohio, Energy and Utilities Specialist.
I signed their registration book with all of my contact information to stay informed. The Barr facility would be located on a 35-acre parcel of land currently owned by an out-of-town person and used for deer hunting. The acreage is surrounded by crop farms and livestock pastures on homesites. Nearby is an electrical substation and high-intensity power lines, with which they would connect.
The anticipated start date would be late 2028 with completion in late 2030. I have seen little information other
than this from prior public meetings, and, like many local residents, I had many questions.
I would like to list them below in Q & A style.
Q. Who is this for – the general community or a specific customer?
A. While NextEra states that this is to serve the general community in the event of brown-outs or black-outs of electric power, those would only occur as a result of data centers in the area pulling from the same grid as local homes. So, they actually work in concert with data centers. Without data centers, they would not be
needed. BESS facilities buy electric power from the grid when rates are low, store it in their lithium ion batteries, then sell it back when the rates are high.
Q. Why here?
A. Cheap land and data centers.
Q. Who pays for this?
A. Vague answer, but they stated no local or federal taxes.
Q. Will electric bills be affected?
A. They stated “no.”
Q. What is the total MW of this facility? Any plans to add on or expand?
A. 200 MW on 20 acres. No plans to expand.
Q. How does this 200 MW compare with local demand?
A. They didn’t know.
Q. Do we still have a say in this project coming here?
A. Yes. It is not a done deal. The land is under contract but not finalized or closed, and the project is pending approval by the Ohio Power Citing Board.
Q. What is the emergency response plan if there is a fire or a failure? Will local fire departments be trained for fire response methods?
A. Fire departments will be told not to respond. The site is monitored remotely from Florida, as the site is not manned, an alarm would be activated, the site shut down, and the fire would be left to burn itself out. A reclamation team would be sent to shutter the site. It would not be repaired or replaced.
When I asked if they had ever had a fire, Ms. Tompkins said they had, but she couldn’t remember where, but that it was in another state. I did a simple web search and found it was in East Hampton on Long Island in N.Y. on May 31, 2023. Ms. Tompkins stated there were no casualties, but did not know about any other types of losses, pollution, or fallout.
Q. How many jobs will be created? Are they tech jobs? Any high paying jobs?
A. Ten (10) jobs. No tech jobs. No high paying jobs. Ms. Tompkins had no job descriptions or pay grade information. I asked if they would be maintenance and lawn care type jobs, and she indicated that was most likely. She didn’t state if full or part time.
Citizens throughout Ohio are against the onslaught of data centers and BESS facilities in our state, especially in our beautiful rural home and farm areas. I ask that you become very involved in this process on behalf of the citizens you were elected to represent.
Please feel free to contact me for further information and details about this risk that is pushing itself into our communities. Home values will decline with these water and power hungry projects, and, oddly, right after all of our homes were reappraised at much higher values for property taxes. For many here, their home is
their largest investment. Don’t let this happen in Highland County.
Thank you for your attention to this very important matter.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Bell
Highland County resident
Comment
Hard NO!
New Market Township residents will not allow this!
Commissioners: STOP allowing the selling of our land, air and water!
Similar Concerns
Thank you for writing this. I own a home nearby, and I'm also very concerned. I attended the meeting and found that the answers were vague and nothing was in writing. I emailed the identified project contact to ask for information in writing and didn't get a reply. The Power Siting board is collecting public input now. I encourage anyone worried about this development to take a few minutes to comment here: https://dis.puc.state.oh.us/PublicCommentEfiling.aspx?CaseNo=26-0498
I'm not opposed to development in general, but there are too many unanswered questions about noise, fire risk, safety, and impact to property values. I called to talk to commissioners about it and was initially referred to the lobbyist for NextEra to have my questions answered. That alone is concerning. I eventually spoke to a commissioner who had limited information. He said there are some restrictions the facility will have to follow and agreed to send them to me. Nothing yet, but I hope to receive it soon.
At this point, there's no plan for our local officials to host public input sessions separate from the company. If this project could have a significant impact on residents and our community, I think at a minimum they should provide people with an opportunity to give input in a planned public forum.
I also spoke to a township trustee who seems to be working hard to learn as much information as possible. He requested the location of a similar facility from the same company that's located in Indiana. He has to my knowledge not been provided with that information. That would at least allow people to travel to the site and see what it looks like and sounds like before it becomes a permanent part of our community.
It feels like rural areas are being targeted because there are fewer people to raise concerns. Our local officials need to find ways to restrict these facilities to industrial or isolated areas rather than close to homes. More needs to be done to protect our community before we get flooded with data centers and battery storage facilities.