COLDWATER TWP. — A 100-megawatt industrial battery storage farm is at a standstill until Coldwater and Coldwater Township decide who controls the zoning.

Texas-based Jupiter Power requested a January township planning commission site plan review for its proposed 70-acre Tibbits Battery Storage facility on the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and State Road.

Before it acts, Coldwater Township asked for an opinion from its attorney on whether the parcel requires a Public Act 425 agreement to come into the city of Coldwater.

Township Supervisor Don Rogers believes the massive battery storage project is excluded from PA 425 under a 1998 franchise agreement between the city and the township.

Coldwater City Manager Keith Baker requested the township and city sign an agreement.

One issue is taxes. Rogers said current law allows as much as $7,000 a megawatt in taxes – $700,000 annually.

There are questions about how solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects will be taxed under recently approved state laws signed by the governor.

Rogers asked the company what taxes it pays in other jurisdictions.

Jupiter plans to buy grid power, often solar, when prices are low, then sell it back when prices are high.

Rogers said the franchise agreement reached in 1998 between the city and township mandates a PA 425 agreement for residential, commercial, and industrial development of more than 3,000 square feet and $500,000 value in the township that needs utility services.

The agreement takes the land into the city and splits taxes 75% to the city and 25% to the township.

The proposed storage facility from Jupiter of four rows of 40 shipping container-sized batteries does not need utilities, only fire hydrants, the site plan application stated.

Rogers said, “They’re not requesting utilities. It’s not a PA 425. There’s just no way around it.”

The supervisor said a provision of the agreement gives the township rights to water in the line that runs along Michigan Avenue to the Walmart Distribution Center.

Rogers read, “65 gallons per minute shall be reserved exclusively for township residential flows and commercial and industrial flows that are not to be transferred into the city.”

A separate section “says the township shall have the right to request installation of fire hydrants water distribution on lands within the township at the township’s expense.”

Rogers asked the township attorney for his legal opinion on the contract. 

The supervisor said the project’s representative told him, “They wanted to stay with the township and not transfer into the city.”

Jupiter Power did not return calls or emails by deadline.

Rogers said the land would remain zoned agriculture, where battery storage is allowed as an “essential service.” The project would only need site plan approval from the township planning commission.

The city would require rezoning as industrial.

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The site west of I-69, obtained by Jupiter, is along the ITC grid transmission lines between the Michigan Avenue and Newton Road substations.

Jupiter operates 427 megawatts of storage in six West Texas locations. Public statements said Jupiter is developing over 11,000 megawatts of power storage nationwide.

Contact Don Reid at dReid@Gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Zoning control and tax issues divides Coldwater, township over battery farm