Electric School Bus Fleets Test the US Vehicle-to-Grid Proposition

Electric school buses could be the "killer V2G app," says Electric Highland Transportation CEO Duncan McIntyre. (Credit: Highland Electric Transportation) Electric school buses just might be the breakout vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology in the United States. At least, that’s how Duncan McIntyre, CEO of Highland Electric Transportation, sees it. McIntyre, who founded renewable energy procurement and analysis marketplace Altenex in 2011 and sold it to Edison International in 2015, started Highland Electric two years ago to build a “business entirely around the school bus electrification market.” The idea is to replace the upfront and ongoing costs of EV buses and charging infrastructure with a fixed annual fee, equal to or less than a school district’s current budget for owning, fueling and maintaining their existing diesel-fueled fleets. Highland finances the arrangement and recoups the investment by finding ways to earn money from the new fleet’s battery capacity when the buses are not on the road. A major part of that equation relies on tapping their energy storage capacity for soaking up low-cost overnight or midday power — and more importantly, discharging it during grid-stressed evening peaks. That’s the big difference between V2G technologies , which actively tap EV batteries, and the […]

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