Electric school buses gave more than eighty hours of power back to the Massachusetts grid over the summer.

The power of heavy-duty electric vehicles is on display in Massachusetts as electric school buses are being used to send much-needed energy back to the grid.

Several places are seeing spikes in energy use nationwide with hot summer weather. The city of Beverly, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, has another plan to beat the heat.

The city is using its electric school buses to send energy back to the grid to help conserve and reduce emissions. Highland Electric Fleets partnered with Thomas Built Buses, Proterra, Rhombus and Synop to make the idea a reality.

Founded in 2018, Highland Electric Fleets provides electrification-as-a-service for state and US government fleets. Its subscription service includes everything needed to get electric buses up and running. The company supplies the buses, charging infrastructure and training materials to get started.

The EV bus company claims it is responsible for the largest electric school bus deployment in the USA. Highland is currently in 30 US states and Canada, with over 330 electric buses.

The EV bus maker is helping jump-start the heavy-duty EV movement with its services using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology to send energy back to the grid. It was the first to use V2G in Massachusetts and Vermont. In 2021, Highland worked with the same partners to send about 3MWh of energy back to the grid.

This is the second summer Highland and its partners used electric school buses to send energy back to the grid in Massachusetts.

A few companies are working with V2G tech to help lower emissions and save the energy grid. For example, Duke Energy, one of the largest utility companies, is working with Ford F-150 Lightning owners to send energy back to the grid when not in use and, in return, save money on utility costs.

The partners used two Thomas Built Buses Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley EV buses powered by Proterra battery systems. The two electric buses supplied over 7MWh of energy back to the grid.

“Electric school buses are ideal assets for V2G applications,” said Sean Leach, Highland’s director of technology and platform management. “Nearly 500,000 school buses in North America spend most of their time parked. Fossil fuel-powered buses provide no value when idle. Electric buses, on the other hand, can be used effectively as mobile batteries when not transporting students to provide additional power that supports grid stability and resiliency. Though 10MWh may not seem significant, consider this. It takes around 17kWh to power an average home in Massachusetts. So, the 10MWh generated from the buses is enough to power about 600 homes.”

Leach said when he first learned of V2G technology being deployed to send energy back to the grid, he thought this would be a perfect use for electric school buses.

He added: “School buses sit idle most of the day, so why not send energy back to the grid to conserve when it’s needed most? Highland Electric Fleets is working with industry leaders to make this a reality. As more EV buses roll out to school districts, it will open up significant opportunities to save energy costs and cut down emissions, a win-win.”