The power give and take of electric school buses

Written By Peter Allan

Two electric school buses in B.C. will soon serve double duty by carrying students by day and storing energy for the grid after hours. Photo courtesy of BC Hydro.

By Cloe Logan

In a first for a Canadian utility, electric school buses will serve a purpose larger than getting kids to and from school. BC Hydro is kicking off a project that will use the buses as battery grid storage once they’re charged — a move that aims to address rising energy needs.

The project is small in scale, but BC Hydro (which is the first utility in Canada to launch a field test of this kind) hopes it can be a successful pilot that can later be expanded. Electric Vehicles (EVs) contain batteries that are charged by plugging into the grid. However, those same batteries can be used as storage for excess electricity. The buses use specific chargers that allow bidirectional energy flow — they charge up when electricity is cheaper and then can release it to the grid during peak demand, before being recharged for driving.

Being able to draw from battery-powered EVs helps stabilize grids fed by intermittent sources of power such as wind and solar, which grew by 35 per cent and 92 per cent between 2019 and 2024 respectively. Wind blows and sun shines, but for the energy to flow more reliably to the grid, it needs to be stored in batteries. Governments are now pushing for large battery storage projects to make renewables more viable. However, EVs present another opportunity to strengthen the grid, explains Kari Montrichard of BC Hydro, since they are “mobile batteries that move around versus a stationary battery,” which allows more flexibility.

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