Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), along with Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) and The Mobility House, has officially confirmed the commissioning of one of California’s most advanced vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electric school bus fleets so to preach clean transportation, grid resilience, and student health.
According to certain reports, the stated development means FUSD now boasts 22 electric vehicle chargers, six high-power bidirectional V2G direct current (DC) fast chargers, and two more high-power unidirectional chargers planned for 2026, all of it coming nicely together to help the school manage a growing fleet of 14 electric school buses, including four Thomas Built and 10 Blue Bird buses.
Not just that, this underlying infrastructure will also tread up a long distance to support the displacement of six internal combustion engine buses, with four new electric buses entering service this year.
“This project is a shining example of how innovation creates a cleaner, smarter energy future,” said Mike Delaney, Vice President, Utility Partnership and Innovation, PG&E. “We’re proud to support Fremont USD and school districts across California as they convert to better, electrified student transportation.”
Talk about the whole value proposition on a slightly deeper level, the project is understood to be led by The Mobility House (TMH) under California Energy Commission-funded Replicable Vehicle-to-X Deployment Study (RVXDS).
Next up, we must take into account how TMH’s intelligent charge management platform, ChargePilot, is roped in to optimize both charging and discharging of the fleet using open standards.
On top of it, as an aggregator, ChargePilot will also enable FUSD’s participation in the context of PG&E’s Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP). This it will do by responding to OpenADR signals, eventually turning school buses into grid assets that can support reliability during peak demand. For better understanding, OpenADR happens to be an open, secure, and two-way information exchange model for Demand Response (DR) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER).
Another detail worth a mention relates to PG&E has upgrading the site’s electrical infrastructure. The stated upgrade includes the introduction a new volt 3-phase service entrance (upgraded from 208V), as well as a 750 kVA transformer. The company would also go on to facilitate installation of a 2,500 Amp switchgear to meet current and future charging needs.
“Electric school buses, with their large batteries and predictable schedules, have tremendous potential to support the electric grid with V2G,” said Gregor Hintler, CEO North America of The Mobility House. “We are proud to provide the technology that enables the district to drive clean and support community energy resilience.”
Beyond that, it ought to be acknowledged that PG&E markedly expedited energization proceedings on the back of a streamlined Rule 15/16 service upgrade, thus ensuring the site could accommodate full allocation of six V2G DC fast chargers.
In case you weren’t aware, Rules 15 and 16 are electric utility rules in California, tasked with outlining requirements for service line extensions that connect the distribution lines to the customers’ electric meters. The site is also interconnected via Rule 21 to allow energy export and more revenue opportunities for the school.
As for what the Rule 21 prescribes, it includes interconnection, operating, and metering requirements for generation facilities to be connected with an investor-owned utility’s (IOUs) distribution and transmission system.
Making this development even more important would be PG&E’s own stature. You see, the company presently serves more than sixteen million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California.
“We’ve already seen how the electric buses can contribute to cleaner air for our community,” said Ernest Epley, FUSD’s Director of Transportation. “Now, we have the opportunity to use these buses to deliver clean and reliable energy too.”
