In January, on the day New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill was sworn into office, she signed Executive Order No. 2. In it, a directive was made for more energy plants, using solar and lithium-ion battery energy. Part of it says they can take "months rather than years" to create.
In her press conference, Sherrill said the order is so that New Jersey, "...can lower utility costs over the long term."
The state already has a handful of battery energy plants. There's one on Long Beach Island in Beach Haven. The facilities are usually made up of rows of tractor-trailer sized containers full of lithium-ion batteries.
They store energy and feed it back to the grid during peak hours. New Jersey wants to increase the "green" energy it creates from 100 to 2,000 mega-watts by 2030.
But fire expert Glenn Corbett has concerns.
"We don't have any regulatory infrastructure, fire-wise to deal with this, and that's a big problem," he said.
New Jersey's statewide fire code was last updated back in 2018, long before battery energy storage became well-known.
"We're very often way behind the rest of the country unfortunately," said Corbett about New Jersey.
He's on the fire code advisory council that helped draft updated codes for the state. They were submitted to former Gov. Phil Murphy last summer and have been there ever since and not adopted into practice.
"We don't want to have a situation where one of these is installed, it catches on fire and we'd have all sorts of problems as a result of that," Corbett said.
In New York, there are already thousands of battery energy plants. From Long Island to Staten Island, some residents are concerned.
"I think it's disgraceful and I think it's dangerous," said Christina D'Angelis of Staten Island.
But New York updated its fire code in 2025 to help ensure they're built with safety requirements. The new code requires each site to have large scale fire testing to help ensure a fire is contained to its metal enclosure. It also requires the units to have a gas detection system because the batteries release certain dangerous gases when they ignite. Hazard control teams are also necessary to be on standby, which could help firefighters in case of an emergency.
The code revisions came after some battery plants caught fire. Incidents have occurred across the state, from Jefferson County to another in Orange County. They burned on and off for days.
"We need something exactly like that here," said Corbett of New Jersey. "But here we are. We're talking about it, but again we're stuck in neutral when it comes to adoption of the state fire code."
7 On Your Side Investigates reached out to Sherrill's office to inquire about why the new codes haven't been placed into practice.
And 24 hours later, the state announced they will be publishing the new updated fire code next month.
A statement from the governor's spokesperson said, "Governor Sherrill is taking action to advance affordable energy policies, like increased battery storage, that help people across New Jersey, so they don't have to choose between keeping the lights on and putting food on the table. The Governor's office will review any regulatory or permitting issues related to new power generation and supply - including those pertaining to the provisions of Executive Order No. 2 - over the coming weeks."
"It's critical that we expand energy storage," said Doug O'Malley, a clean energy advocate and the state director of Environment New Jersey.
He says the storage systems will help keep the power on during the hottest and coldest temperatures and hopefully lower prices in the long run.
"The best and cleanest way and fastest way to generate energy is clean energy solutions like solar and energy storage," said O'Malley.
New Jersey's new fire code won't go into effect right away. Starting next month, the public has 60 days to comment on the new codes, so they won't be put into practice until later this year.
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