How to Plan Now for Fleet Electrification

Rocky Mountain Institute is out with an informative blog post for fleet owners who have an eye on electrifying their vehicles. In short, RMI says plan ahead, and plan big, to maximize savings in the long run.

As an example, RMI takes a closer look at the planning and effort by Stockton Unified School District in Stockton, CA to electrify its fleet of school buses:

The Mobility House worked with the Center for Transportation and the Environment, Schneider Electric, and Sage Energy Consulting on a California Air Resources Board grant project to deliver a smart charging and operations strategy for Stockton Unified School District (SUSD). This project utilized make-ready infrastructure from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to provide a second meter at the site for the EV chargers, qualifying the customer to participate in PG&E’s business electric vehicle rate.
When it comes to charging, a common misconception among fleet operators and drivers is that each vehicle must be immediately plugged in every time it returns to the depot in order to ensure it is ‘fueled’ for the next drive. In reality, fleet charging depends on many factors including fleet schedule and vehicle and charger specifications. Varying local utility tariffs further compound this complexity and can be difficult to navigate for operators looking to improve the cost effectiveness of their charging.
To minimize electricity charging costs and ensure SUSD’s vehicles are available for assigned routes, The Mobility House used fleet schedules, hardware requirements and local utility rates to simulate charging operations. With SUSD’s 11 school buses utilizing four 50 kW DC fast chargers and ten 16.8 kW Level 2 chargers, The Mobility House concluded that SUSD has sufficient charging capacity to operate electric buses for even its longest daily routes.
Want to learn more about how to finance a solar project? Read more from our CEO, Arno Aghamalian, in the Washington Post.