California school district adopts 100% electric bus fleet with VPP capabilities

Zūm, a transportation solutions provider, announced that Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) will be the first major school district in the US to transition to a 100% electrified school bus system with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.

Zum is providing a fleet of 74 electric school buses and bidirectional chargers in Oakland, managed through its AI-enabled technology platform.

The all-EV fleet will also play a dual role as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), giving 2.1GWh of energy back to the power grid at scale annually.

“Oakland becoming the first in the nation to have a 100% electric school bus fleet is a huge win for the Oakland community and the nation as a whole,” said Kim Raney, executive director of Transportation at Oakland Unified School District. “The families of Oakland are disproportionately disadvantaged and affected by high rates of asthma and exposure to air pollution from diesel fuels. Providing our students with cleaner and quieter transportation on electric school buses will be a game changer ensuring they have an equitable and stronger chance of success in the classroom.”

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Zum said electrification of a large fleet with V2G capabilities requires a vast ecosystem of partners. Federal and California State programmes that Zum said were critical to the acceleration of this project include; the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus programme, California Air Resource Board (CARB), Heavy Vehicle Incentive Program (HVIP) vouchers, Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and Clean Mobility Operations (CMO) programmes.

The acceleration of the EV transition was the result of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s ability to provide 2.7MW of load to Zum’s Oakland EV-ready facility, Zum said.

“PG&E is proud to work closely with Zum and Oakland Unified in deploying what is the largest electric school bus fleet and vehicle-based, grid-supporting resource in the country,” said Mike Delaney, vice president of Utility Partnerships and Innovation, PG&E. “Oakland is PG&E’s headquarters, it is home to many of our customers and co-workers, and a city we’ve proudly served for more than a century. Achieving this advanced fleet electrification and vehicle-grid-integration milestone for the people and students of Oakland reflects our commitment to delivering excellent customer service outcomes for our hometowns using breakthrough thinking, collaboration and swift execution.”

Zum has set a goal of electrifying 10,000 bidirectional school buses which will create the potential to supply 300GWh of energy to the power grids annually. In addition, Zum is electrifying school buses in its fleet in districts across the country, with San Francisco Unified and Los Angeles Unified – which are three and six times the size of Zum’s Oakland school bus fleet, respectively – to soon follow, the company said.

Earlier this year, The California Energy Commission (CEC), through its Clean Transportation Program, granted a $2.9 million award to a project team led by The Mobility House, an EV charging and energy solutions company, to implement 12 bidirectional chargers at four California school locations.

The project, “Replicable V2X Deployment For Schools (RVXDS),” will utilise school bus fleets in a V2G configuration to help mitigate regional grid emergencies – especially during peak summertime windows. Additionally, the project will use replicable, open standards throughout the vehicles, hardware, and software, The Mobility House said.

CEC also awarded BorgWarner and project partners Fermata Energy and Lion Electric a $3 million grant for a V2G project meant to bring V2G solutions for services provided by American Transportation to California school districts.

The grant, funded through the CEC’s Clean Transportation Program, will include the installation of 21 BorgWarner 125 kW UL-listed, combined charging system (CCS) protocol bidirectionally-enabled chargers, paired with a minimum of 20 LionD all-electric school buses. Fermata Energy’s Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) software platform will manage the charging and discharging of the buses.

Originally published on power-grid.com