COMFORT — Company officials are canceling plans to develop a battery-storage center on Flat Rock Creek Road that met with local opposition.
In a letter Tuesday, Jan. 27, to the Boerne Star, an East Point Energy official spelled out the firm's decision to drop plans for constructing the facility.
"Due to shifting strategic priorities, East Point Energy's development of the Flat Rock Energy Center will no longer be pursued at this time," wrote Catherine Chapman, East Point Energy manager of community engagement.
"We'd like to thank the local community for their collaboration, and look forward to strengthening grid reliability throughout Texas,” Chapman added.
East Point was one of two primary firms seeking to build battery energy storage systems along the road. East Point was planning to build a 250 megawatt battery facility on 10 acres on Flat Rock Creek Road, near the Lower Colorado River Authority power substation.
Key Capture Energy's plans for its Ringtrail Ridge storage facility on thee acres of land on Flat Rock Creek met with staunch opposition in January 2024. More than 275 people crowded into Comfort Middle School to voice not only their opposition to Key Capture's efforrts, but the entire BESS industry as well.
Precinct 2 County Commissioner Andra Wisian said the Kendall County Commissioners Court in May 2024 began working deliberately to strengthen safety standards for battery energy storage systems.
“We listened carefully to residents about safety concerns, including thermal runaway lithium battery fires, toxic byproducts, and contaminated runoff into nearby tributaries and groundwater," Wisian said.
That work included adopting the 2024 International Fire Code, consulting with a nationally recognized fire and life-safety expert, and implementing county ESS design guidance grounded in IFC Chapter 12 and NFPA 855. These steps were taken, she said, using existing statutory authority and were focused on fire access, emergency response, environmental protection, and public safety — not on stopping a specific technology or project.
"The Commissioners Court used the legal tools available to us to put clear safety requirements in place," Wisian said. "This was never about stopping battery storage, it was about holding companies accountable to safety standards that protect our residents and first responders."
Texas State Rep. for District 19 Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, filed several bills in the 2025 legislative session in an attempt to halt building the potentially dangerous energy facilities on the outskirts of Comfort. A year earlier, she had penned a letter of objection to the East Point Energy CEO in Virginia.
"East Point is officially calling off their plans for a BESS facility in Comfort, due to 'shifting strategic priorities,'" Troxclair posted on Facebook.
"This was a team effort, led by a united community," Troxclair wrote. "We consistently demonstrated to anyone who would listen, that this small, rural town, with a volunteer fire department, limited water and no egress (on Flat Rock Creek Road), was an unsafe location for large-scale battery storage."
She said the news is "a sign of hope for similar projects that should be reconsidered."
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