Oakland Electric School Buses Can Return Power to Grid

California’s Oakland Unified School District became the first in the nation to use a fully electric bus fleet to transport its students, according to an article in Grist by Matt Simon.

The buses not only replace dirtier diesel vehicles, but also serve as vehicle-to-grid batteries that can send energy back to the grid if needed. As Simon explains, “If every EV has V2G capability, that creates a distributed network of batteries for a utility to draw on when demand spikes. The nature of the school bus suits it perfectly for this, because it’s on a fixed schedule, making it a predictable resource for the utility.”

Because of their regular schedule and routes, school buses have ample extra power. The concept could expand to other types of vehicles such as garbage trucks, delivery vehicles, and passenger cars. “Basically, lots of batteries — big and small — parked idle at different times to send power back to the grid.”