Electric school bus fleet powered by vehicle-to-grid technology in California goes live
In a groundbreaking initiative, the Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) has launched an electric school bus fleet in partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and The Mobility House. This project, part of the California Energy Commission-funded Replicable Vehicle-to-X Deployment Study (RVXDS), aims to harness the power of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology to support electric grid reliability and resilience.
The Mobility House's charge management platform, ChargePilot, plays a pivotal role in this operation. ChargePilot manages the power flow by optimizing both charging and discharging of electric school buses in the FUSD fleet. This enables buses to act as mobile batteries that can feed power back to the grid during peak demand periods.
ChargePilot operates by managing daily smart charging schedules, responding to utility signals from PG&E, optimizing charge timing based on electricity prices and grid demand events, ensuring buses are sufficiently charged, and discharging energy back to the grid when needed. It also acts as an aggregator, coordinating fleet-wide power flow pursuant to open standards for Demand Response and Distributed Energy Resources (DER).
This system allows school buses with large batteries and predictable schedules to support electric grid reliability and resilience by supplying clean energy back to the grid, while also reducing fleet operating costs through load management incentives.
The FUSD electric school bus fleet now includes 14 buses and 22 chargers. This is the second school district in PG&E's commercial fleet Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) pilot, after a 2024 deployment with Zum and Oakland Unified.
PG&E has upgraded the district's electrical backbone for the project, including a new 480-volt 3-phase service entrance, a 750kVA transformer, and a 2,500-amp switchgear. FUSD has been in PG&E's EV Fleet program since 2019, which has provided incentives for 17 school buses and 13 medium-duty EVs.
Ernest Epley, the director of transportation for FUSD, stated that electric school buses can contribute to cleaner air in the community. He also mentioned that the electric school buses now have the opportunity to deliver clean and reliable energy.
Meanwhile, The Mobility House's ChargePilot system will allow FUSD to participate in PG&E's Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP), responding to OpenADR signals to send stored power back to the grid during peak demand.
For individuals interested in solar power, EnergySage offers a free service that helps find trusted and reliable solar installers for homes. The website provides access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help every step of the way in the solar installation process. EnergySage offers personalized solar quotes that can be easily compared online. The website has a presence on Tesla, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
As we move towards a more sustainable future, initiatives like these demonstrate the potential for electric vehicles to contribute not only to reducing carbon emissions but also to grid resilience and reliability.
[1] https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/mobility-house-launches-vehicle-to-grid-electric-bus-fleet-in-california [2] https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-mobility-house-launches-vehicle-to-grid-electric-school-bus-fleet-in-california [3] https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-mobility-house-launches-vehicle-to-grid-electric-school-bus-fleet-in-california [4] https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-mobility-house-launches-vehicle-to-grid-electric-school-bus-fleet-in-california [5] https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-mobility-house-launches-vehicle-to-grid-electric-school-bus-fleet-in-california
- The collaboration between FUSD, PG&E, and The Mobility House leverages science and technology to advance environmental-science, with the aim of integrating green energy into the school bus fleet through the use of electric vehicles.
- As part of this initiative, FUSD's electric school buses are equipped with innovative charging systems like ChargePilot, which not only optimizes charging and discharging but also enables the buses to act as mobile batteries, feeding power back to the grid during peak demand periods, reducing fleet operating costs, and supporting grid reliability and resilience.
- Beyond the immediate impact on the environment and grid, this project also promotes education-and-self-development by demonstrating the role of finance in supporting sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy projects, illustrating the ways in which science and technology can be harnessed to improve our society and create a more sustainable future.
