Electric School Buses
With more than 100 successful deployments under its belt, CTE is the national leader in helping transit and school bus operators successfully deploy zero-emission buses.
The US school bus fleet contains roughly 480,000 vehicles carrying millions of students each day, yet only 1% of these buses are electric. Replacing all diesel school buses with electric school buses (ESBs) would drastically curb children’s exposure to harmful air pollutants, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and has the potential to substantially reduce operating expenses for school districts.
Fleet electrification is complex and requires proper planning and technical support to ensure success. There are a myriad of decisions to be made around route planning, charging strategy, equipment selection, infrastructure development, resource management, and more.
Our Services: Smart Deployment
CTE helps school districts develop a project management plan to guide their electric school bus (ESB) project. CTE collaborates with the school bus operator to define project objectives and scope, identify resources, and develop a detailed project schedule and implementation plan. The project plan is then presented at the project kickoff meeting held with key team members and stakeholders.
CTE’s modeling suite uses our proprietary engineering and analysis tools to develop an independent operational analysis that helps school bus operators match zero-emission technologies to service requirements.
CTE gathers data on routes, technical specifications of the bus and charging equipment, and operational assumptions. This route and bus information is used to model the buses’ duty cycles, simulating bus performance on selected routes. The process also ensures that adequate power and energy storage specifications are met and inform fueling and charging strategies.
CTE defines charging scenarios to model electricity consumption and assess charging equipment requirements. Modeling results for electricity inform infrastructure procurement and operational decisions.
CTE examines electric utility rate structures to estimate the annual cost of energy to charge electric school buses. CTE works with the school bus operator and local utility providers to determine rate schedules that would be the most advantageous for supporting ESB deployments.
Based on the modeling outputs, CTE helps the school bus operator develop vehicle and charging infrastructure technical specifications to meet service requirements. The specifications can then be used as part of a competitive procurement. CTE also provides advisory services throughout the design and build process.
If a school bus operator chooses to select a bus, charging station, or facility modification vendor through a competitive procurement, CTE supports the school bus operator in the procurement process, including the preparation of Requests for Proposals (RFPs), technical evaluation of proposals, vendor demonstrations, site visits to vendor facilities, vendor negotiations, and contracting.
Before the delivered buses enter service, CTE runs a series of tests to validate the expected levels of bus performance. If there are any discrepancies between the modeled and the tested performance, CTE will work with the operator to analyze these discrepancies and reevaluate operational decisions before the school places the buses into service.
CTE collects operational data to generate a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure benefits and ensure the buses perform as expected. KPIs can be used to compare electric school bus (ESB) performance against the current bus fleet by measuring and reporting mileage, energy consumption and costs, maintenance costs, battery degradation, and efficiency and range under varying conditions. This information is used to assess energy savings, cost savings, and emissions reductions to measure performance against expectations and goals and to validate the operating model. Continuous KPI monitoring establishes an understanding of the technology that can be applied to future ESB procurements, deployments, and long-range fleet management planning.
CTE employs a project management methodology specifically designed for electric school bus (ESB) deployments. CTE provides technical advisory services throughout the project to ensure that school bus operators understand the differences in technology and the best practices for deploying and operating ESBs. CTE’s Smart Deployment Methodology is designed to address all aspects of a successful implementation including planning, requirements analysis, specifications, workforce development requirements, operator and maintenance training, testing and validation, and performance evaluation.
Our Services: Transition Planning
Service Assessments are a critical part of the electric school bus transition planning process. They help school districts understand their current fleet, identify potential challenges, and develop a plan to transition to electric school buses. Service Assessments typically include an inventory of the current fleet, an assessment of the district’s charging needs, an analysis of the district’s budget, and a plan for transitioning to electric school buses.
The inventory of the current fleet includes the age, make, model, and mileage of each bus. This information can help school districts identify outdated buses that may need to be replaced, as well as buses that are in good condition and can be kept in service for a longer period of time.
Example Service Assessment Output
A fuel assessment determines the annual fuel requirements and associated costs for electric school buses. It calculates energy costs through the full life of the transition, including the district’s current fossil fuel buses. As current technologies are phased out in later years of the transition, the fuel assessment calculates the increasing energy requirements for electric school buses (ESBs). It also provides a total energy cost over the transition lifetime.
A facility assessment determines the necessary infrastructure to support the projected zero-emission fleet based on the results of the service and fuel assessments. It calculates the quantity and cost of battery-electric infrastructure needed to meet the fleet procurement schedules defined in the service assessment and the fueling capacity required based on the fuel assessment.
Electric School Bus Project Spotlight
Stockton Unified School District Fleet Transition
CTE collaborated with Stockton Unified School District (SUSD), Schneider Electric, Sage Energy Consulting, The Mobility House (TMH), and ViriCiti on the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Clean Mobility in Schools (CMIS) Grant Program. Their joint initiative, titled "Getting Stockton to Zero-Emissions: Clean Air for Our Community," focuses on deploying electric school buses, electric lawn and garden equipment, and related charging infrastructure.
CTE plays a crucial role by providing project management and technical services for SUSD, overseeing vehicle procurement, fleet planning, data collection, and community outreach. They have developed a comprehensive long-term plan for achieving a zero-emission school district and are responsible for reporting requirements to CARB. Additionally, CTE will conduct ongoing performance analysis of the 11 electric school buses, using the data to inform future fleet transition planning, including estimating costs for the shift to a zero-emission fleet. CTE is also actively engaged in outreach efforts, organizing community events, creating educational materials, and collaborating with local partners.
“CTE was instrumental in the record-setting success of Stockton’s Clean Mobility In Schools (CMIS) Pilot Program. The grant writing, project management, subcontractor coordination, data collection, reporting, and community outreach were exemplary.”
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