A Los Angeles Unified School District electric school bus turns left in an intersection. The district has comitted to the electrification of its Sun Valley Bus Yard by 2026. The facility will operate 180 electric school buses.
fied School District in California, going electric is not as daunting of a task, especially with the various state and federal funding at play. The district has committed to the electrification of its Sun Valley Bus Yard by 2026, which consists of purchasing 180 Blue Bird electric buses, char- gers and appropriate infrastructure. This represents the “largest single-purchase of new electric school buses, chargers and electric infrastructure in the nation that is owned and operated by a school district,” the LAUSD website states.
Considering Infrastructure Monongalia County Schools in West Virginia currently has the largest charging infrastructure set-up of any school system in the state. Harris said the district currently has two GreenPower Nano Beasts (one with a wheelchair lift and one without). The first bus was delivered via state purchase.
The district purchased the other one itself. Additionally, the district is awaiting Nano Beast models along with three Beasts and one Mega Beast—nine in all—via state pur- chase or the EPA Clean School Bus Program. All 11 EVs are expected to be in the fleet by fall of 2025. The district has a total of 130 school buses. Harris noted that infrastructure is currently set up to charge six buses using Autel 120kW chargers. This means two buses could be hooked up at the same time and the charger would deliver each one up to 60kW. Monongalia is also in the process of adding three more chargers.
“The infrastructure [process], compared to some of the
stories I’ve heard across the country, ours actually went really well with this first phase,” Harris said. “From the time we awarded the contract until we went live with our chargers, it was six weeks. I’ve heard some stories that
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PHOTO COURTESY OF LAUSD
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