$174 Million Battery Energy Storage Facility Proposed for Codington County, South Dakota PUC Schedules Public Input Meeting

Northeast Radio SD News – Watertown, SD - Crowned Ridge Energy Storage I, LLC (CRES) has formally submitted an application to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for a permit to construct a 120-megawatt (MW) battery energy storage system (BESS) facility in Codington County. Representing an estimated capital investment of $174 million, the project is designed to enhance grid resilience, curb transmission congestion, and maximize existing regional renewable energy generation.

Following the formal filing on May 14, 2026, the South Dakota PUC has officially scheduled a public input meeting for early July, initiating a comprehensive state-level evaluation process.

Project Parameters and Grid Integration

The proposed facility features a utility-scale lithium-ion battery system capable of a 4-hour discharge duration, establishing a total energy capacity of 480 megawatt-hours (MWh). Functioning as a “peak-shaving” grid mechanism, the system will absorb low-cost, surplus power during off-peak windows and inject it back into the grid when regional electrical load demands peak.

CRES, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of global energy provider NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, has strategically positioned the project to leverage pre-existing clean energy infrastructure. The development area encompasses 52.7 acres of private land at the southeast intersection of 464th Avenue and 161st Street in Codington County, situated entirely within the operational boundaries of the Crowned Ridge Wind I facility. Following construction and immediate environmental reclamation, the permanent aboveground facility footprint will occupy a compact 7.8 acres, preserving the remainder for active agriculture.

To connect to the power grid, the battery installation will link to the adjacent Crowned Ridge Wind Collector Substation via a 2,215-foot underground medium-voltage collection line. From there, electricity will transit existing transmission pathways to its ultimate interconnection point at the Big Stone South 230-kilovolt (kV) Substation on the Otter Tail Power Company transmission system. CRES plans to execute a Surplus Interconnection Service Generator Interconnection Agreement with Otter Tail Power and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) in June 2026. This contractual mechanism ensures the combined wind and battery energy output never exceeds the grid’s original pre-approved wind interconnection capacity limits.

Economic and Local Community Impacts

Development operations for the storage site originally kicked off in 2023. Ahead of state permitting, CRES secured a 15-year Energy Storage Agreement (ESA) with Northern States Power as the primary off-taker, anchoring the long-term economic utility of the asset.

For Codington County and the surrounding area, developers project that the construction phase will generate approximately 60 temporary construction jobs over a 9- to 12-month building cycle, emphasizing the employment of qualified regional workers. Once operational, the facility will be maintained by one to two full-time local operations and maintenance (O&M) personnel working directly out of the adjacent wind project’s local O&M facility. Beyond jobs, the infrastructure will significantly bolster local tax bases through sales and use taxes, contractor excise taxes, and consistent property tax generation across its projected 35-year lifespan.

Advanced Safety Engineering and Monitoring

As battery installations scale nationwide, safety and hazard control remain central to the facility’s core engineering layout. Testimony submitted by Joshua Dudash, the project’s Principal Fire Safety Engineer, details the comprehensive design provisions being deployed to mitigate public fire and health risks.

The facility will be built in compliance with the advanced 2024 International Fire Code (IFC) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 855. Hardware defenses feature distinct layers of protection, including robust physical thermal barriers between individual battery cells within modules, between modules within racks, and between structural racks to systematically eliminate the risk of “thermal runaway”—a rare chemical cycle where an internal temperature spike produces cascading heat. The system uses fully enclosed steel-walled cabinets certified to stringent UL 9540 and UL 1973 safety standards, and extensively tested under UL 9540A to verify that a localized structural fire cannot propagate outside the immediate equipment boundaries.

Continuous, around-the-clock remote monitoring will be executed 24/7/365 by NextEra Energy Resources’ Renewable Operations Control Center (ROCC). The ROCC functions as an active digital hub capable of remotely triggering automatic diagnostic shutdowns down to individual units if anomalies surface. CRES is currently advancing a comprehensive Emergency Response Plan (ERP) in lockstep with Codington County emergency management and local fire protection leadership. It has committed to hosting in-person operational readiness training on-site for local first responders before the facility is commissioned into active service.

Environmental Safeguards and Sound Control Walls

According to environmental surveys presented by Project Manager Jill Seed, the project area sits primarily on cultivated agricultural land dominated by soybean farming (71.6%) alongside limited grassland cover (17.9%). Because standard farming activities regularly alter the land, the biological impact remains exceptionally low. Technical reviews conducted by SWCA Environmental Consultants verified that no federally or state-listed threatened or endangered species, nor federally designated critical habitats, occur within the footprint.

To shield local water resources, CRES modified its initial project perimeter to completely avoid an isolated aquifer located along the property’s northwestern corner. Additionally, field teams successfully delineated two palustrine emergent wetlands on the site, measuring 0.03 and 5.6 acres. To prevent ecological disturbance, CRES will deploy an underground horizontal directional drilling method to bore completely beneath the wetland segments intersected by medium-voltage collection cables. This engineering maneuver bypasses surface impacts entirely and maintains local hydrologic flow.

Acoustic evaluations managed by Laurie Morrill, Lead Scientist in acoustics at Epsilon Associates, Inc., utilized standardized sound-propagation software to calculate cumulative regional sound profiles—factoring in the storage facility alongside three nearby operational wind projects. To protect neighboring properties, the engineering plans include a massive 20-foot-tall, 860-foot-long sound mitigation wall constructed along the northern and western margins of the BESS area fence line. Models confirm that with the sound barrier in place, cumulative sound levels will easily comply with strict local county limits, remaining below 45 dBA at all non-participating occupied structures and 50 dBA at participating structures.

Community Notice: Public Siting Meeting Details

The South Dakota PUC has finalized dates for an open public input session to review the Crowned Ridge application, gather public comment, and answer resident questions:

·         Date & Time: Wednesday, July 1, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. Central Time

·         Location: Waverly South Shore School Gymnasium, 319 Mary Place, Waverly, S.D.

·         Formal Party Status Intervention Deadline: Individuals or local government bodies intending to formally intervene as a legal party to cross-examine witnesses or submit direct factual evidence must submit written applications to the PUC by 5:00 p.m. CT on July 13, 2026.

Next Steps in the Siting Process

Under South Dakota Codified Law, the PUC operates under a statutory mandate to issue a final ruling on the permit within one year of the application’s initial filing date. The active public case can be tracked via the state’s portal under Electric Docket EL26-014.

Concurrently, a Local Review Committee—composed of county commissioners, project senior managers, and school board presidents from the Waverly 14-5 and Milbank 25-4 school districts—has been formally activated. Pursuant to SDCL § 49-41B-10, this local committee must perform a localized socio-economic impact review and submit its final report detailing specific mitigation recommendations to the state by December 14, 2026.

CRES expects to submit a routine extension application to Codington County before June 2026 to align its local Conditional Use Permit timeline with the broader state permitting and building schedule.