Step 2.1: Conduct Facility Assessment
Overview
Prior to purchasing electric school buses and chargers, you should convene your core project team to conduct a facility assessment and discuss the placement of chargers and any potential necessary upgrades to electrical infrastructure on the electric utility and/or the customer side of the meter. Oftentimes, site constraints or the costs to upgrade or expand electrical infrastructure will essentially determine the scale of an initial electric school bus deployment.
It is important to involve your electric utility representative and electricians in this stage. If you have multiple facilities where you park school buses, you should carefully consider the tradeoffs and benefits to electrifying different sites, including infrastructure costs and potential impacts and benefits to neighboring communities.
For smaller deployments, you may consider if there is potential to install the initial chargers employing the existing electrical service to reduce time and cost.
For those districts that are pursuing full fleet electrification, you should consider ways to future-proof your facility and phase upgrades efficiently, so that you don’t have to begin the planning process anew with each deployment.
Things to do:
- Convene core team to discuss project scale and key considerations
- Do a facility walk-through with your electric utility and electrician to understand potential electrical upgrades and associated costs for current and future deployments
- Obtain a single line drawing of electrical service connection/entrance into your facility for your electric utility
- Identify easement procedures and requirements of all the utilities at your site which often include electric, water, sewer, gas, telecommunications and internet
Ways to include equity:
- Talk to members of the communities that live around facilities to be upgraded, including those who are unhoused, about your electrification project, their priorities and needs, and the potential impacts and opportunities
- If multiple facilities are eligible for upgrades, map them using air quality and environmental justice tools or local datasets to assess community health conditions
- Prioritize upgrading facilities in or near areas that have been historically disadvantaged—as defined by race, income, or pollution exposure—or where buses serve schools with higher numbers of students from disadvantaged communities to reduce local air pollution and boost grid resilience
- Collaborate with utilities to maximize upgrades by considering simultaneous projects like solar panels or stationary storage or charging stations for wheelchairs and other electronic equipment.
Questions to consider:
- Where are the most promising locations to place chargers, in terms of cost effectiveness, operational safety and ease of deployment?
- Do you have additional unused capacity in your existing panel that could be accessed by above-ground connections and minimal infrastructure investments?
- Where would any supporting electrical infrastructure be installed (for example, ground-mounted transformers, power inverters, switchgear, meters, panels or subpanels)?
- What upgrades are likely needed to enable your facility to support the number of school buses and types of chargers desired at this initial stage and in future stages?
- Could electrifying a particular depot help to improve air quality in a neighborhood with high levels of pollution or provide emergency power during disasters? What other benefits can you drive through equitable site selection?
- Are there any significant safety considerations (such as student loading/unloading areas, fire zones or applicable regulations) that will impact where chargers can be installed?
- Will the parking arrangement need to be modified based on charger location and where the charging ports will be located on the school buses?
- What support can electric utility staff offer moving forward, in terms of facility planning, electrical rate review, etc.?
- Is there adequate and safe lighting, and do the parking stalls require Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance?
Potential stakeholders:
- District transportation director
- District fleet manager
- District facilities manager
- District energy manager
- School bus contractor (if applicable)
- Electric utility representative
- Electrician
- Community members living near facilities that might be upgraded
Resources:
- Electric School Bus Facility Assessment Guide – VEIC: This toolkit contains printable worksheets that a school district can use to conduct a facility assessment.
- All About Charging Infrastructure video series – WRI's Electric School Bus Initiative: This series of 2-3 minute videos takes you on-site at a bus depot in New York City to show firsthand the infrastructure needed to power electric school buses.
- Interconnection Challenges and Solutions – US Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center: This 7-minute video explains the electrical infrastructure needed to power chargers and solutions to mitigate upgrade costs and manage peak demand charges.