Most people don’t think much about how electricity reaches their home. You flip a switch, and it works. But behind that simplicity is a grid under enormous pressure. Demand is climbing. Extreme weather is more frequent. The old model of burning fossil fuels at peak hours to keep up is expensive, unreliable and increasingly unsustainable.

Battery energy storage systems, which are large-scale installations that store electricity and release it when the grid needs it most, are a critical part of the solution.

As a retired FDNY lieutenant who now works full-time on fire safety for energy infrastructure, I understand the instinct to be cautious about new technology in your community. That caution is healthy. But I want people to know something that doesn’t always make headlines: battery storage has undergone a remarkable transformation in both technology and regulation, and today it is among the most rigorously overseen infrastructure in the state.

Battery storage — and its regulation in NY — have come a long way

The industry has made significant advances in thermal management, fire detection, system monitoring and physical containment. Modern systems isolate problems at the individual unit level, preventing a single equipment issue from cascading and allowing the fire to extinguish in many cases without water. Real-time monitoring detects early warning signs and can trigger automatic shutdowns before conditions escalate.

Just as important, the regulatory framework has kept pace. After incidents at storage sites in 2023, New York launched a two-year collaborative process involving state agencies, independent safety experts, and fire service leaders, including the FDNY, to overhaul its fire code. The updated code took effect Dec. 31, 2025, and is one of the strongest in the country.

What does that mean in practice? Large projects now require independent, third-party peer review before approval. Qualified technical specialists must be available for immediate dispatch to support local firefighters during any incident. Every facility needs a site-specific emergency response plan, with training offered directly to the local fire department. The code also mandates round-the-clock fire detection monitoring, expanded safety signage, and recurring inspections throughout the life of every project.

This is a level of oversight most types of infrastructure simply don’t receive.

We saw this framework perform in the real world just weeks after the updated code took effect. When a storage system in Warwick experienced a fire in late December, safety systems worked as designed. There were no injuries, no evacuations and no impact to public health or air quality. Firefighters contained the incident to the affected equipment within hours. The only losses were replaceable hardware. In fire protection, that’s what we call a “successful failure” — the equipment failed, but the safety systems did exactly what they were built to do.

Context matters. Roughly 3,800 fires break out every day across the United States in homes, vehicles and commercial buildings. We don’t stop building houses or driving because fires happen. We manage those risks through codes, inspections, training and professional response. Battery storage is held to that same standard and, in many respects, a higher one.

Battery storage can help keep NY electricity reliable

New York’s energy needs are growing. Battery storage helps keep electricity reliable during heat waves and storms, reduces dependence on expensive peaker plants, and gives communities a tool to manage rising costs. That’s infrastructure worth having, and infrastructure New York has taken extraordinary steps to make safe.

We should always demand high standards, rigorous enforcement, and transparency. But the combination of modern technology and New York’s nation-leading fire code has made battery storage one of the most carefully regulated systems on the grid. That is a fact backed by engineering, data, and the professionals who put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe.

Paul Rogers is the co-founder of the Energy Storage Research Group, or ESRG, and a retired FDNY lieutenant specializing in fire safety for energy storage and critical infrastructure.

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