Utility companies are helping cash-strapped school districts replace diesel buses with electric ones that have a secondary purpose: helping to manage electricity demand. Communities in California, Massachusetts and a few other states are testing electric school buses and charging infrastructure (in some cases, tapping funds disbursed from Volkswagen’s diesel emissions settlement with the U.S. government).
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology for school buses is still fairly new. Michigan-based DTE Energy, for example, has a pilot with six buses in two school districts. It is testing charging infrastructure as well as V2G.
