In California, electric school buses are powering 1,000 homes — and turning a profit

Tellus Power, the charging equipment manufacturer behind the project, is also helping school buses connect to the power grid in Vermont, Illinois and San Francisco.

1 minute read

October 21, 2026, 9:00 AM PDT

By Zachary Whalen


A row of school buses plugged into the power grid.

The buses can plug into the power grid in the late afternoon, just in time for a large spike in electricity usage. | Tellus Power

Seventy-four electric school buses are powering roughly 1,000 homes in Irvine, California. In the two years since the program started, the buses have returned hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of energy to the electrical grid, and are especially useful over the summer, where they can be a grid resource all day long. 

“Collectively, the buses have a total of 11.5MWh of energy storage. Buses fill up overnight, use about 20-40% of their charge during the day, then plug in to [vehicle-to-grid] chargers after the school day and discharge to feed the grid, just in time for the late afternoon rush on electricity, when people get home and turn on air conditioning, start cooking, turn on the lights and so on,” Jameson Dow writes for Electrek.

Tellus Power, the charging equipment manufacturer behind the project, is also establishing electric school buses that can connect to the power grid in Vermont, Illinois and San Francisco. 

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 in Electrek

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