Michael Nicholas

Michael Nicholas serves as a Fire Consultant and Energy Storage Permitting Specialist with Integrated Compliance Inc. He previously worked as an Energy Storage Specialist & Fire Consultant with Hiller Companies for 3 years. Prior to joining Hiller, he worked as a Captain and Assistant Fire Marshal for Kern County Fire Department for 26 years. During his fire service career, he led the development and implementation of their Battery Energy Storage program working closely with leaders in the industry. Currently Kern County has one of the largest active battery energy storage projects in the Country at 3.2GWh, which partially supports Edwards Air Force Base. He is working with the California Energy Storage Alliance and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development on a campaign to help standardize the BESS submission, permitting and witness testing process in the State. He participated in the recent NFPA 855 2026 revision and adoption process, providing critical input to support the needs of fire department and emergency operations. He assisted in development of ongoing testing and maintenance guidelines in the NFPA 855 2026 edition. He has presented at large battery energy storage conferences hosted by American Clean Power, California Energy Storage Alliance, California Fire Prevention Institute, Intersolar Energy Storage North America, National Association of State Fire Marshal’s BESS Symposium, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, and Southern California Society for Fire Protection Engineers.