74 Oakland electric buses fed 1.7 GWh back to the grid in two years — Electrek

A fleet of 74 electric school buses in Oakland, California, has returned 1.7 GWh of energy to the power grid over the past two years. The buses, equipped with vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, charging stations, can simultaneously supply approximately 2 MW of power to the grid — which, according to estimates, is enough to power around a thousand households in the evening.

Energy from bus batteries

As Electrek reports, the total battery capacity of the bus fleet is 11.5 MWh. At night, the vehicles charge; during the day, they use approximately 20–40% of their charge on routes; and after the school day ends, they connect to V2G chargers and feed energy back into the grid.

Electricity enters the system during the evening peak consumption period, when residents return home and use air conditioning, lighting, and household appliances more actively. On holidays and in summer, when the load on California's grid increases, the buses can serve as a resource for it throughout the day.

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A model for the school district

Tellus Power manufactured the chargers for the project, while Zum operates the system. Over two years of operation, the system's availability exceeded 99.5%. The article notes that this arrangement allows the school district to purchase electricity when it is cheaper and supply it to the grid during periods of higher prices.

Tellus Power is also implementing or preparing other V2G projects: for four school buses in Burlington, Vermont; two city buses in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; three school district sites in Illinois; and a fleet of 104 school buses in San Francisco, which is planned to expand to 238 vehicles.