Cost Reduction of School Bus Fleet Electrification With Optimized Charging and Distributed Energy Resources

Considerations for electrifying school buses are presented with an analysis of battery sizing to match bus-driving requirements. The charging and vehicle-to-building dispatch of the electric school buses were optimized to evaluate the potential to reduce the impact of the bus charging on the school's electric utility bill. Distributed energy resources and flexible building loads were also considered with the school bus electrification to evaluate the further reductions in energy costs with enhanced systems integration and optimized dispatch. The effect of degradation on the school bus batteries was analyzed to determine if the smart-charging and vehicle-to-building battery operation decreases the life of the battery. The results show that there is an opportunity to mitigate the increase in electric utility bill with improved charging controls and bi-directionally operating the school bus batteries. The battery degradation analysis using dispatch with optimized charging and discharging shows that acceptable battery life remains.