School bus industry leader Blue Bird announced today it delivered the first operational DC Fast Charge vehicle-to-grid (V2G) in North America. In fact, this new bus utilizes technology from Nuvve Holding Corp and will harness power from the Cummins™ PowerDrive™ EV system.
Additionally, this bus is one of the two Blue Bird Type C electric buses that the company delivered to Illinois’ Pekin Public School District and Hollis Consolidated School District #328 in Peoria.
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Blue Bird on its new V2G technology solution for school buses
This Tuesday, Blue Bird, a school bus industry leader, announced it released its first operational DC Fast Charge V2G in NA. Indeed, the technology joins another Blue Bird Type C electric bus, which the company delivered previously to Illinois’ Pekin Public School District and Hollis Consolidated School District #328 in Peoria.
Furthermore, the bus will utilize Nuvve Holding Corp.’s technology and harness power from the Cummins™ PowerDrive™ EV system. All of this was announced today at a press event held at the Pekin Transportation Department.
Accordingly, Nuvve’s V2G platform allows the school bus batteries to store energy when the grid doesn’t immediately need it. In fact, including renewable energy is generated from sources like wind and solar.
Therefore, this allows fleets to sell stored energy from the school bus batteries to the grid when needed. Besides, the system can supply power back to the school and charge the buses during non-peak hours. Consequently, the technology allows the school to reduce peak-consumption energy costs.
Currently, Nuvve is installing their high-powered V2G DC charging stations at each site. Moreover, both of the school districts participating in the launching are members of the Bus-2-Grid Initiative.
In fact, this is a membership service of the Future Green Energy Consortium. Consequently, it helps school districts leverage V2G revenue opportunities and secure grant funding to electrify their fleets.
Moreover, the school bus purchase makes the district’s fleet 100% electric powered. Accordingly, the communities are currently adding infrastructure and chargers to support their new zero-emissions buses. In fact, those were paid for by an electric bus grant from the Edwards Coal-Fired Plant Settlement.
Reception from the parties
“Not only are we improving the health of our students, drivers, and communities by reducing emissions. Also, we’re advancing our V2G capabilities allow us to store clean electrical energy and to generate revenue by reselling unused energy back to the grid during peak demand,” said Daniel Jost, fleet manager for the City of Pekin. Therefore, “we’re proud to lead our community, state and the country toward a future based on clean energy.”
“Our system allows electric school buses to perform to their fullest potential by providing grid services when plugged in and charging,” said Gregory Poilasne, chairman and CEO of Nuvve. Therefore, “this reduces the load on the grid and will make emergency back-up power from buses a reality shortly. So, with our partners at Blue Bird, we’re on a mission to make the electrification of school buses more affordable and efficient. Indeed, our V2G platform positions us to do that.”
“With more than 400 Blue Bird electric school buses already delivered or in order, districts across the U.S. are quickly learning how easy and affordable it is to adopt this cleaner, safer solution for students;” said Trevor Rudderham, senior vice president of electrification and product planning at Blue Bird. So, “as the leader in this market, we’ve been able to learn, adjust and implement rapidly to improve on what is already a great performance by our electric buses.”
“Cummins is excited to leap into the next era of connectivity and distributed energy resource management;” added Amy Davis, vice president and president of New Power at Cummins. Hence, “with this new advancement, we’re helping school districts leverage their investment by making our technology smarter and more efficient.”
