What if you didn’t have to connect to the grid?
Propane Fueling Solutions offers an off-grid system that combines solar, wind, bat- tery and propane to charge electric school buses via a DC fast charger. Promoted by the Propane Education & Research Council, the off-grid system has several key benefits, such as energy independence, cost savings and scalability. “When a school bus pulls up, they start charging off the battery. When they get down to 20 percent, the propane powered generator kicks on and finishes charging the vehicle,” Javier Ramirez, owner of Propane Fueling Solutions, explained to School Transportation News last month at the ACT Expo in Anaheim, California. He added that if a large fleet needs to be charged, more chargers and larger propane tanks would be supplied at the location. He explained that with this solution, the power is being generated right then and there, which means there’s no loss in power supply. Additionally, if the grid goes down, for instance, districts would still be able to charge their vehicles. Plus, this avoids school districts needing to go through a utility provider and shortens the permitting pro- cess. “Electrical connections are very expensive nowadays, so you would save on that permitting process,” he added. Another aspect is if there is a district with both propane and electric vehicles in their fleet, they could fuel their propane bus with the tank and charge with the EV charger, serving as a dual-purpose system. - Taylor Ekbatani
Steven Whaley, left, of the Propane Education & Research Council tells STN Publisher Tony Corpin at ACT Expo last month about how propane is charging electric vehicles. Watch the interview at
stnonline.com/go/f.
bringing the expertise for upkeep in-house. LAUSD’s mechanics receive train- ing from electric school bus manufacturers to ensure they are equipped with the latest training to work on electric buses. While working on chargers may violate a warranty, it depends on how the
maintenance is done, said Pritchard. “The electric vehicle charging infrastruc- ture marketplace is very much in kind of a Wild West stage right now,” he said. “There are legacy big companies that have been making electrical equipment for 100 years. “You can always get cheaper stuff from little companies that don’t quite know
what they’re doing. If that company goes out of business or gets absorbed by another company, you’re buying components that are likely to be outdated and not supported well in the future.” Some control boards are being replaced to accommodate 4G and 5G because
3G doesn’t work anymore, Pritchard added. “Similar to all components, it’s a matter of diagnosis and replacement,”
said Farquer, of ease of maintenance on chargers. “As chargers become more modular, which looks to be the direction the industry is headed, I anticipate a simplification of the maintenance and repair process.” LAUSD currently has 11 all-electric school buses in operation and 24
46 School Transportation News • JUNE 2023
PHOTO BY VINCENT RIOS CREATIVE
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