Officials cite ‘shifting strategic priorities’
COMFORT — Company officials representing a battery-storage center that met fierce opposition from residents and lawmakers announced they are canceling plans to build on Flat Rock Creek Road.
State Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, whose District 19 includes Comfort, hailed the decision as a victory for the unincorporated town.
“This was a team effort, led by a united community,” Troxclair wrote in a Facebook post. “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.”
In a letter 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, the company’s 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, near the Lower Colorado River Authority power substation.
Key Capture Energy’s plans for its Ringtrail Ridge storage facility on 3 acres on Flat Rock Creek also 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 efforts, but the entire battery energy- storage system.
The facility is on hold, according to officials.
Kendall County Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian said she and fellow members of Commissioners Court in May 2024 began working to strengthen standards for the system.
“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 protective designs.
The steps focused on access by firefighters, emergency response, environmental protection and public safety, she added.
“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.”
Troxclair 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 penned a letter of objection to the East Point Energy CEO in Virginia.
She said the latest revelation is “a sign of hope for similar projects that should be reconsidered.”
“This was never about stopping battery storage.
It was about holding companies accountable.”
— Kendall County Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian
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