The heatwaves that keep happening this summer are a major strain on power grids. In some places, electric school buses are helping utilities to keep the lights on and air conditioners running.
The Electric School Bus Initiative project from the World Resources Institute currently has about 230 electric school buses that are able to supply 8 MWh of power back to the grid at any given time – enough electricity to power about 1,600 typical homes for as much as 4 hours. Deploying the buses as V2G (vehicle-to-grid) power sources can significantly shave peak load demand for the utilities where they are located.
California is the leader in developing and adopting V2G school bus technology. The largest program is at the Oakland Unified School District where a fleet of 74 buses adds an estimate 2.1 GWh of clean energy back into the grid each year. San Francisco’s Unified School District plans to launch a new electric school bus project in August with a fleet of 104 buses returning about 3 GWh of energy each year.
There are about 6,700 electric school buses already in service on U.S. roads. If even half of them participated in a V2G program, they could supply well over 100 MWh of flexible, off-peak energy during periods of peak demand.
This sort of resource is not just a way to shore up the grid. It could also help lower consumer electricity costs by reducing the need for utilities to buy expensive peak power. Besides saving money, in an emergency all that stored power in bus batteries could save lives.
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References:
The grid was melting down in last week’s heat – until EVs came to the rescue
