How Electric School Buses, as Mobile Microgrids, Can Respond to Energy and Weather Emergencies
Electric school buses, serving as mobile microgrids, can reduce air pollution, cut diesel use, support the grid and provide backup power during outages, especially in marginalized communities where people are more susceptible to the effects of climate change.
With bidirectional charging, electric school buses can send power to the grid, a home or other electric vehicles (EV), which means they can support the grid when it’s stressed, keep a home’s lights and refrigerators running and charge other EVs.
That was the message from panelists who participated in a June 26 teleconference, “How Electric School Buses Can Help Californians Save Money, Cut Pollution and Keep the Lights On,” organized by the Climate Center, which aims to cut climate pollution in California.
Mutual aid agreements can help deploy electric school buses
During the teleconference, Robert Stafford, research associate at World Resources Institute, described a mutual aid agreement template that can facilitate the deployment of electric school buses for school bus operators, school districts, utilities, emergency responders and other stakeholders. Under these agreements, the parties agree to help each other out when needed. Utilities often sign these agreements so they get help from other utility restoration crews during outages.
The agreements could be especially helpful to underserved communities that are more prone to the effects of climate change. Those communities often don’t have the resources to respond to emergencies like hurricanes, wildfires and high temperatures.
The guide spells out the steps school districts and other stakeholders should take to deploy bidirectional electric school buses to help out during emergencies . The guide recommends that school buses capable of bidirectional charging become recognized resources in the federal National Incident Management System and integrated into emergency plans in accordance with the Incident Command System.
Such actions can expand interest in, and accelerate the deployment of these technologies,” the guide said.
California in 2023 had about 1.5 million EVs on the road and expected an estimated 8 million by 2030. If the state’s EVs become bidirectional, it would only take a small percentage of the 8 million to provide enough power to help avoid blackouts and create a more resilient grid. This would create cleaner air because renewable energy stored in EV batteries could be released during periods of high demand.
Without diesel buses, children’s asthma-related health costs drop
Health benefits are among the many pluses of deploying electric school buses, Stafford said during the teleconference.
Swapping out diesel buses with electric school buses yields $120,000 in lifetime childhood asthma savings, Stafford said. That would include healthcare expenditures such as emergency room visits.
In addition to yielding health benefits, electric school buses could provide demand response and grid services in California.
In California, electric school buses could charge when power is less expensive–likely mid-day when solar is available–and support the grid in the evening or early morning with frequency regulation, spinning reserves and other services.
“You can make good money if you’re in that space,” he said.
Testing electric buses in Oakland
A project from Zum in Oakland, Calif. tests some of these ideas, with the help of a microgrid. The microgrid will support 145 heavy duty Class 8 electrical chargers, allowing the Port of Oakland to significantly expand its fleet of heavy-duty electric vehicles.
Placed at seven locations, the chargers will enable on-site charging of more than 1,000 on- and off-road zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). Currently, the port has the capacity to charge 50 ZEVs.
During the teleconference, Anna Bella Korbatov, vice president of regulatory affairs at Fermata Energy–which provides bidirectional charging technology–gave another example of a project in California.
Supporting the grid during heatwaves
Under the project, eight electric school buses will support the grid on hot summer days by participating in California’s Emergency Load Reduction Program. The project is a partnership between San Diego Gas & Electric, the Cajon Valley Union School District and Nuvve, which deploys vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies.
At the time, it was the first V2G project operating in Southern California that supported grid reliability.
The project is part of Nuvve’s Resilient Energy Solutions for Schools project, which focuses on using electric school buses to provide resilience.
Fermata is working with the Porterville School District in California and the Butterfield Charter School, where the company is installing V2G technology in the high school’s gym, she said.
If the school district electrified more of its fleet, and had bidirectional EVs, the buses could drive up and plug into community resilience hubs, she said. The resilience hubs could provide electricity, charge medical equipment and other life-saving equipment in response to any type of power outage.
Providing cold storage backup at a school
At the charter school, electric school buses could back up a freezer building and cold storage facility expansion that’s now underway, she said. A stationary storage unit, along with an electric school bus, could provide six hours of backup.
To scale such electric school bus projects, a number of challenges must be overcome, Korbatov said. They include interconnection challenges.
One option for addressing interconnection delays is flexible interconnection programs, under which utilities agree to interconnect distributed energy resources (DER) sooner if the DER provider agrees to cut back consumption during certain high demand periods.
But once DERs like electric school buses are grid connected, they need to be better compensated, she said.
“We need more export compensation and stackable export compensation to help the business case for bidirectional chargers,” she said.
V2G buses can make money during demand response season, but need compensation mechanisms during other seasons, Korbatov said.
The Connected Solutions program in New England pays distributed energy resource providers $200/kW over the summer, she noted.
The need for stacked value streams
“How can we advocate for stacking across distribution, wholesale and other value streams?” she said. “It comes down to working with partners to continue advocating for more compensation.”
“We need permanent compensation that can lock in revenue for more than just a few years,” she said.
During the teleconference, the speakers also focused on the ability of electric school buses to yield health benefits and resilience to underserved communities.
“We need to prioritize kids who are suffering from the highest levels of pollution,” said Margarita Parra, transportation decarbonization director at Clean Energy Works. “These kids tend to be located in areas with high energy burdens and long standing under-investment in infrastructure.”
Adding electric school buses to utility resource plans
Clean Energy Works is calling for regulators and utilities to include electric school buses in utility resource plans and for equitable rates for electric bus charging. The organization also is looking to advance grid services opportunities for underserved communities.
Electric school bus programs aren’t necessarily dependent on federal funding.
Funding sources include state resilience and state clean school bus grants. In California, the California Energy Commission’s School Bus Replacement Program provides electric school bus funding.
To encourage deployment of electric school buses, it’s important to focus on school districts’ needs, Korbatov said.
“When a school district partner comes to you and is interested in bidirectional charging, appreciate how difficult it may be for them,” she said during the teleconference. “Make sure they are fully educated on all the resources out there and what is realistic and feasible.”
