to perform energy management services for the local utility while charging the bus up. Then we’ll send power back to the grid operator,” explained CEO Dun- can McIntyre, who founded Highland Electric in 2018. Through Highland Electric, electric buses are bundled with maintenance and infrastructure support services, like char- gers. Contracts run 12 years, along with the useful life of the vehicle and Highland is paid back annually per mile driven, a cost similar or less than the costs of die- sel, which is around $2.50 per mile. “Our business focuses on facilitating
the rollout of fleet electrification in a more meaningful way,” McIntyre said. “There’s a lot of demand for it, but it’s typically too complicated, too expensive, and therefore really hard to do anything outside of a pilot. We bring a bundle of financing and services to make it more affordable.” In response to pressures from elected
officials, environmental activists, and students, Todd Watkins, the transpor- tation director for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, initially planned to test one electric bus while continuing to run diesel until the prices dropped. Then Highland Electric’s pro- posal challenged his assumptions about the affordability of electric buses. “There are many ways to deal with the
sticker shock of the price of new electric buses,” said Watkins. “Try to look beyond the sticker shock because there’s a num- ber of strategies out there for how we get around that.” Through Highland Electric’s ve-
hicle-to-grid model, the district is transitioning its 1,381-bus fleet to elec- tric over the next 14 years. During the first four years, the district will procure 326 buses along with infrastructure. After the first two years, the district pledged to stop buying diesel and re- place buses as needed with electric. Importantly, the district retains control
over the fleet. “I think moving from a district-operat- ed fleet to a contractor-operated fleet is a pretty big change,” Watkins explained. “I don’t think it’s a very big change to go from buying your buses and selling them
28 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2021
Utility V2G School Bus Pilots
California Pacific Gas & Electric San Diego Gas & Electric
Southern California Edison (approved but not led by the utility)
Florida Florida Power & Light New Hampshire
New Hampshire Electric Co-op New York ConEdison Iowa Alliant Energy Illinois ComEd (Exelon Co.) Ameren Maryland PepCo (Exelon) Michigan DTE North Carolina Duke Power New Jersey
Public Service Electric & Gas Co.
Atlantic City Electric (Exelon Co.) Oregon Portland General Electric Nevada NV Energy South Carolina Duke Virginia Dominion Energy
at the end of their useful life to just leasing them and giving them back at the end of their useful life.” Until now, the county has owned
all of its buses free and clear. But Watkins compares buying buses to buying any other vehicle. “If you lease your family car versus
if you buy your family car, there’s very little difference in terms of what you get to do with it,” he said. “So, this is kind of similar. We will still have Montgomery County Public Schools drivers driving them, we’ll still have our mechanics working on them.” Watkins additionally negotiated
an exit strategy into the contract, outlining which duties the district would take on, so it could continue getting kids to school if the contract ended before its term. “If we weren’t happy with their
service and we ended it, or if they weren’t making any money and they ended it,” Watkins explained, “we put in protections about what those timelines would look like, and whether we would have a right to take over the buses.” Because companies like Highland
Electric and Nuvve are building in- frastructure to support the bus fleet, they also need permanent parking lots. Charging stations can be ex- pensive to move if the depot moves. While some districts worry about the stability of leasing buses from an energy company, Trahand said, V2G stakeholders like Nuvve are interest- ed in stable, long-term infrastructure projects. “When you’re investing in these
locations, getting a big grid connec- tion is a two- or three-year project, sometimes hundreds of million dollars to setup,” Trahand said. “Grid connection studies are complex and long, they require us to work very closely with utility and we will have design on our side, also some com- mitments on the side, so everything needs to hold together and we’re all in there for the long term.” Proponents additionally argue
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
