What’s cooler than an electric school bus? An electric school bus with vehicle-to-grid capability. And that’s what some schools in San Diego, California, have now.
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), the Cajon Valley Union School District and Nuvve have just begun a vehicle-to-network trial of 8 electric school buses. Of course, the plan is to help stabilize the grid and reduce costs when electricity demand is high and the natural electricity supply may be difficult to handle. If sufficient electricity is then generated, the electric school buses can charge a little.
Courtesy of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E).
The pilot project will last 5 years. For the project, SDG&E installed six 60-kilowatt bidirectional DC fast chargers at the Cajon Valley Union bus terminal, located in the city of El Cajon.
The utility notices something not many people realize: Our cars are parked 95% of the time. The same goes for school buses. When those vehicles are full of large batteries, it offers a huge opportunity to store energy. “Electric fleets represent a huge and innovative energy storage resource and have enormous potential to benefit our customers and the community not only environmentally, but also financially and economically,” concludes SDG&E.
“Now that the two-way chargers are up and running, Cajon Valley Union can participate in SDG&E’s new Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP), which will pay business customers $2 per kilowatt-hour if they can export power to the grid or reduce your power usage. consumption in the event of an emergency on the electricity grid.”
Courtesy of San Diego Gas & Electric
Courtesy of San Diego Gas & Electric
The program looks fun and exciting. What needs to be demonstrated for all parties, however, is that this kind of business can make financial sense. Will this kind of partnership pay off for school districts, utilities, and everyone else? We’ll see what they conclude.
“We took the opportunity to be a part of this pilot project because of its potential to help us build a healthier community and better serve our students,” said Scott Buxbaum, Assistant Superintendent for the Cajon Valley Union School District. “If we can reduce our energy and vehicle maintenance costs through this project, it will free up more resources for our schools and students.”
The Cajon Valley Union School District pilot program isn’t the only V2G electric school bus pilot, nor even the only one that SDG&E is addressing. The utility has similar projects in the San Diego and Ramona Unified School Districts.
In general, it’s exciting to not only see electric school buses on the road, or vehicle-to-grid trials of electric cars, but to actually see electric school buses act as large energy storage batteries.
San Diego wants to lead the way in electric vehicles in several ways, and this is a big step in leadership. I expect more announcements from others as pilots like this become more attractive, and assuming SDG&E does well.
“This V2G project is part of SDG&E’s broad portfolio of clean transportation and fleet electrification initiatives. For more information on SDG&E’s Power Your Drive for Fleet programs, please visit: sdge.com/fleetsthe company concludes.
Thanks to San Diego Gas & Electric.
Related (sort of): Sunrun V2G charger works with Ford F-150 Lightning to power your home
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