Just a few days ago, CleanTechnica reported on how electric vehicle batteries are being networked into virtual power plants. Now, thanks to Dan Allard, we can expand that story: batteries in electric school buses are also helping stabilize the electrical grid. There are more than 6,700 electric school buses deployed across 49 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and tribal nations. With schools out for summer and temperatures soaring, demand for electricity is at record highs, and some of those bus batteries are meeting the need through bidirectional charging\u2014vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability.<\/p>\n
Fully deployed V2G projects involving about 230 of the nation\u2019s electric school buses can supply about 8 megawatt-hours (MWh) of power at any given time, according to the World Resources Institute\u2019s (WRI) Electric School Bus Initiative. While that is not enough to solve every capacity shortage\u2014PJM, the largest regional grid in the U.S., needs more than 160,000 megawatts this week for 67 million people under record-breaking heat\u2014it is a start. Steve Letendre, senior advisor to the Vehicle Grid Integration Council, told Reuters: \u201cIt\u2019s very early days. School buses will be a critically important backbone of V2G capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Electric school buses have large batteries, some exceeding 200 kilowatt-hours. They charge when demand is low and send power back to the utility when demand is high. They often sit idle in summer when electricity demand surges. At least 31 utilities and 21 states are involved in V2G school bus projects, WRI said. More electric buses are being added to fleets, many with V2G capability. However, V2G projects involve significant upfront costs and suffer from a lack of universal technology standards, with regulatory frameworks years away. Owners also face concerns that repeated charging and discharging could accelerate battery degradation or void warranties.<\/p>\n
California is leading the U.S. in V2G school bus technology. The largest project is for the Oakland Unified School District, where Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and transit provider Zum operate a fleet of 74 buses estimated to generate 2.1 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually. A separate Zum project with the San Francisco Unified School District launches next month, expected to surpass Oakland with a starting fleet of 104 buses returning about 3 GWh annually during peak hours. That fleet will more than double to 238 electric buses in 2027\u20132028.<\/p>\n
California mandates that electric school buses funded through state programs be equipped for V2G capability. It is funding some V2G infrastructure programs and has partnerships with the state\u2019s largest utilities\u2014PG&E and Southern California Edison.<\/p>\n
In Connecticut, Branford Public Schools will have 46 V2G-capable electric buses in August. In North Carolina, the Cherokee Boys Club will operate 21 electric school buses for Cherokee Central Schools, with a V2G test program funded by Duke Energy. Danny Owle, the club service manager, is working on a project to use the buses as generators for school buildings that double as emergency shelters. In South Florida\u2019s Glades County School District, Daniel Thomas, director of administrative services, plans to use 13 Blue Bird electric buses as cooling centers when the next hurricane strikes. Thomas said: \u201cWe hope it never comes, but this is Florida.\u201d (Writers note: avoid saying \u201cclimate change\u201d aloud to avoid political backlash.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over 6,700 electric school buses in the U.S. use V2G to supply 8 MWh to grids. California leads with projects generating up to 3 GWh annually. Learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}