With the launch of a new pilot program in collaboration with Nuvve, Chicago area utility ComEd is set to become the latest utility to explore the benefits of bidirectional charging using electric school buses to support the grid.
Electric school buses are ideally suited for pulling “double-duty” as both community transit and mobile battery energy storage systems. While they’re on the move collecting and depositing school kids, they’re actively improving the air quality of the communities they travel through by displacing harmful diesel emissions. While they’re parked – whether that’s for hours during the day or days over the summer – the energy stored in their massive batteries can be fed back to the grid when demand peaks.
When it works, the solution offers a win-win for both the cash-strapped school districts, and the utility. The schools can be paid for the energy they divert back to the grid, and the utility gets power that is cheaper and potentially cleaner than what they could otherwise acquire during an unexpected demand spike.
Nuvve, for their part, is going to do everything they can to make sure it works. “Nuvve’s cutting-edge V2G technology transforms electric vehicles into reliable, dispatchable, and monetizable mobile energy storage assets, and our continued innovation—evidenced by our recent groundbreaking AC V2G project with (ComEd parent company) Exelon—positions us at the forefront of this industry,” says Hamza Lemsaddek, Vice President of Technology and Astrea AI at Nuvve. “This pilot will evaluate the value electric school buses can deliver to ComEd and its customers.”
The pilot is part of ComEd’s broader Beneficial Electrification program, which includes a number of business and public sector rebates intended to reduce the barriers to EV adoption by lowering the up front costs of both charging infrastructure and commercial electric vehicles. With the launch of this program with Nuvve, ComEd will begin to collect data that will enable it to shape the future of similar programs in regards to V2G and V2B technology.
“ComEd is excited to launch the Vehicle-to-Grid pilot program in 2025 as we continue with our mission of delivering best in class reliability and customer solutions to advance the equitable adoption of EVs here in northern Illinois,” explains Scott Vogt, Vice President of Strategy and Energy Policy for ComEd. “V2G is the next frontier in our work to support local school districts on developing plans that will help lower emissions, upgrade their fleets, and implement the benefits of EVs and their related infrastructure affordably. We look forward to working with Nuvve, Resource Innovations, and various stakeholders in the region to deploy new technologies that will help bring the environmental and economic benefits of electric school buses into more communities.”
Since launching the last year, these programs have helped catalyze the addition of 3,500 EV charging ports across the region, and placed over 200 commercial EVs on Illinois roads, a number that includes dozens of medium- and heavy-duty EVs and – of course! – electric school buses.
The ComEd pilot will involve four electric school buses in three different Illinois school districts, and (if successful) could eventually lead to more widespread deployment of V2G technology throughout the Chicago area.
Electrek’s Take
Voltera charging expert Matt Curwood was good enough to come on Quick Charge a few months ago to talk about some of the different ways school districts can approach the infrastructure challenges posed by a fresh electric vehicle deployment. I’ve shared that episode again, above, and encourage everyone who lives and works near school buses to go visit a school that has electric buses, and smell the difference cutting that ground-level air pollution can make in a child’s day.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Nuvve.
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