WHITE — If you love power, then this news is sure to give you a jolt: Project plans are afoot to bring giant batteries — and a lot of them — to the White area in the coming years.

The Cloverleaf Battery Project, as it’s known, is being spearheaded by Miami, Florida-based Spearmint Energy. If all goes according to plan, it will be built southeast of White in the vicinity of the Deer Creek Station.

The project, which is currently pegged at 175 megawatts, is part of a trend in the energy-generating industry that’s gaining steam: The ability to store excess energy generated from multiple sources, including solar power and wind energy, so that it can be used to keep the power grid stable and avoid blackouts during times of high demand.

The batteries that allow this are the same ones that power our smartphones, laptops and other devices — just bigger. Much bigger.

A number of factors drew Spearmint’s interest to Brookings County.

“This location has, over the years, evolved to be a little bit of a hub for energy,” Peter Rood, Spearmint Energy’s chief development officer, told the Brookings Register in an interview. “There’s a number of existing, high-voltage transmission lines that come together and connect to one another at this location. There’s a gas generating plant, the Deer Creek Station, there … and a couple of other facilities that come together.”

He continued, “That makes it a great place for battery energy storage because it allows us access to a number of different systems and allows the most benefit to the grid because those benefits radiate down those different lines to other parts of the transmission grid.”

Rood expects the Cloverleaf Battery Project will require around 10 acres of land and will house a ballpark figure of 100 battery enclosures. Completion isn’t likely, he said, until the end of the decade. Why such a long time frame?

“Energy development is a pretty slow process. We like to make sure that … the project is a good fit for the community,” Rood said. “We’re at the phase right now where we’re doing that (outreach). … We work with the county and to the extent that there is township or city permitting, work with them to make sure that we understand their concerns, we understand what zoning and other sorts of permitting rules apply to the project, and then work through those individual permits.”

The White area can expect to see some employment benefits from the project, with Rood noting that specialized labor will be used during construction of the battery project, whose investment value he estimated to be very substantial. Afterward, once it’s up and operating, Cloverleaf will likely require no more than two to three permanent employees to oversee it.

“There’s not a ton of operating work to be done during operations,” Rood said. “It really is doing preventative maintenance programs to make sure the batteries can operate with high efficiency. … They’re pretty self-sufficient once installed.”

He also pointed out that the project will provide property tax revenue for local governments while, at the same time, helping to lower costs for electricity users who are getting their juice from a mix of generation sources.

“Batteries really just help all those different types of energy generation work better together and end up providing a more reliable electric service at a lower cost,” Rood said. “Batteries help us smooth everything out as the grid transitions from big, centralized plants to wind and solar and gas and other things.”

The cost savings are achieved, according to the American Clean Power Association, by storing energy when prices are low and discharging it later during high-demand periods. That approach can reduce costs for utilities and help families and businesses save money as well, the association noted.

While the project is Spearmint Energy’s first foray into South Dakota, the company already has other, unrelated, operations in other states, including Texas and southeastern Minnesota near Albert Lea and Rochester.

South Dakota and Minnesota are both part of the territory overseen by Midcontinent Independent System Operator. It’s an organization that manages the transmission system for electricity across 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, per MISO’s website. So what does this mean for Spearmint’s White-area plans? Growth, that’s what.

Rood pointed out that MISO anticipates quite a bit of battery storage capacity will be developed in its territory over the next decade.

“We’re always looking for ways to be a part of that,” he said. “Cloverleaf right now is the only project we have in South Dakota and the only one that we’re actively pursuing at this moment, but we’re always looking for new spots.”

Rood also touched on tax benefits for the project, saying that Spearmint Energy is investigating such incentives.

“I can tell you that we haven’t applied for any of those yet,” Rood noted. “I think we’re still investigating which ones, if any, would be open for us and what would the target of those incentives are for us that may or may not apply to us.”

He pointed out that the batteries themselves are eligible for federal tax incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act. Prior federal incentives that applied to wind and solar projects are now also available to battery projects, he said.

Circling back around, Rood emphasized his company’s plans for community involvement.

“We look to be good members of the community, so we’ve done, for our other projects, we’ve sponsored local events, we’ve contributed to scholarships and other sorts of community endeavors,” he said. “We like to have, in addition to property taxes, other sorts of engagement with the community. As we get to know the local community better, we’ll look for those opportunities to participate as a business in the area.”

Rood also reaffirmed the promise of energy benefits afforded by battery storage projects.

“Batteries are one tool that exist to help us better run the grid and better distribute that energy,” he said. “… (Spearmint) is excited to advance this project and take advantage of that improving, cutting-edge technology and provide an investment here that will improve the reliability of the grid and help make sure the lowest-cost energy is available to ratepayers.

“We’re happy to be part of the community and look forward to engaging with the county and other stakeholders as we advance the project over the next several years,” Rood concluded.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.