charge the ESBs overnight during off-peak hours, which makes the district eligible for carbon credits that he estimates will lower the energy cost below the current 10 cents per kilowatt hour. “We got the fast chargers that can charge a bus in
two to three hours,” Sides said. “So, if for any reason a bus does not charge overnight, we can charge it in the morning. It would cost a little more, but we could do it.” Sides added that the chargers are operational
because his staff charged an ESB for a neighboring school district in about an hour. Sides noted that while EVGateway is ready for
bi-directional charging, “[Puget Sound Energy] is just on the cusp and es- timates it will be another year before they have that capability.”
Martinez and Sides did
“We got two Type C, 77-passenger electric buses
from Lion Electric Bus in Canada two years ago,” Recker said. “They monitor our charge. They can di- agnose things from Canada and tell us how to fix it.” Recker added that Lion recommended Nuvve to them as an EVSP because the district had no idea who to contact for charge management services. Recker said cold weather and road conditions great- ly impact the performance levels of the two ESBs. “If the roads are soft or if there’s snow on the
what Nuvve recommends all districts do when con- sidering electrifying their fleets. “We understand how challenging it can seem to look at adding or converting fleets to electric,” a Nuvve rep- resentative wrote in an email to School Trans- portation News. “First, it is crucial for the district to sit down with an experienced [electric ve- hicle supply equipment] company to support them and analyze route planning and bus selection. Understand- ing district routes is a key step to implementing electric buses. Finally, we advise districts to sched- ule a site visit to a deployed electric fleet depot and attend educational webinars focused on school bus electrification and funding opportunities.”
“If the roads are soft or if there’s snow on the road, we use more battery, and it takes longer to charge. If the roads are fine and there is no wind, and the temperature is somewhat normal and not below zero, things
are fine. ” - Deann Recker, Morris Area School District in Minnesota
road, we use more battery, and it takes longer to charge,” Recker explained. “If the roads are fine and there is no wind, and the temperature is somewhat normal and not below zero, things are fine. We store [the ESBs] inside, so it takes less time to heat. We also have auxiliary diesel heat in our buses because the electric heat would have taken the power down quicker. “They run the same
routes every day,” she continued. “They run a morning route, and we charge them. We drive again at 3 p.m. then we charge them overnight. The off-peak charge is 48 cents per kilowatt hour, and it’s 63 cents for peak hours.” Over 130 miles east near Minneapolis, Nick Martini, the transportation coor- dinator for Osseo Area Schools in Maple Grove, Minnesota, said he con-
The Weather Effect Meanwhile in the Midwest, Deann Recker, transportation director for Morris Area School Dis- trict in Minnesota, said her operation had to deal with the requisite charging glitches that come with new technology as well as having to com- pensate for the weather to operate her two ESBs for the past two years.
52 School Transportation News • JUNE 2023
tracts with two private carriers, one of which has three Type C ESBs also from Lion Electric. He said the ranges vary from 80 to 110 miles per charge, depending on the weather. “The range drops about 10 to 15 percent during the winter,” Martini noted. “We do store our buses indoors and that helps a little bit. We also charge them indoors. It helps us by keeping them in- doors, we don’t have to warm them up as much as if we kept them outside, that helps on the battery draw a bit.”
Martini said he does not use an EVSP. “We don’t feel
we have enough buses yet,” Martini explained. “We actually have an agreement with [utility] Xcel Energy,
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 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
