RIPLEY — At its board meeting this month, Board of Education members were presented with a “road map” regarding the process of converting the bus fleet to electric vehicles.
Representatives from the architectural firm Gordon W. Jones Associates presented a Zero Emission Electric Bus Feasibility Study, as well as a presentation on the school’s building condition survey.
Timothy Mertzlufft, Senior Project Manager, told board members that the study involved three areas. Members of Gordon Jones met with representatives from Cornice Technologies and examined the district’s bus runs to assess the ability of EV buses to cover the routes, he said.
The study covers three different types of vehicles: large buses, small buses and Suburbans and other passenger vehicles, Mertzlufft said.
The study also examined the consumption rate for buses along the routes and created an energy profile from the raw data. “There’s a whole lot of choices that have to be dealt with as you move forward,” Mertzlufft said.
David Zdolinski, electrical engineer with Buffalo Engineering, spoke about the various options for charging the buses. The first option, he said, is to install a Level 2 AC charger in the bus garage. According to the study, ‘This charger utilizes an AC circuit from the building’s electric service and converts the power to the vehicles onboard AC/DC inverter to charge the battery.’
Zdolinski went on to say that this type of charger can make use of the existing infrastructure. However, it would require the installation of transformers. Each charger can charge one bus at a time and would take six to eight hours, he said.
The second option would be to install Level 3 DC fast chargers, which can charge three buses at once and would take three to four hours, Zdolinski said. However, these chargers require a lot more power and would entail the addition of a dedicated 480-volt service for the bus garage, he added.
Mertzlufft noted, at this point, that state transportation aid would be applicable to the cost of the additional electricity There will also be grants available for districts, he said.
Mertzlufft then reviewed the information from National Grid regarding the company’s ability to provide the electricity necessary to power a fleet of buses. “The good news for this district is that there is enough power in the current grid to run the buses,” he said. He then went on to review the comparison between the cost of diesel buses and electric buses over a 10-year period.
The district’s Head of Transportation, James Morrison, noted that originally, the electric buses were scheduled to be amortized over 12 years, however it was recently publicized that EV buses cannot be rustproofed and, therefore, the amortization has been changed to only eight years.
Mertzlufft said the replacement of the diesel buses would be done in phases. The study recommends that the district purchase one bus. “Then, if you like it, we can go on with the whole fleet,” he said.
Board members also listened to a presentation on the building condition study from Michael Noga, President of Gordon W. Jones Associates. After reviewing the history of the state requirement that each district create a building condition survey, he noted that the purpose is to develop the information into a long-range plan. “We’re trying to look ahead and say when some of these things should happen,” he said.
Noga noted that a building condition study organizes priorities into three sections. These sections are items that have a life expectancy of one to three years, three to six years, or six to nine years. “This is designed to provide you with a road map as to when each project should occur,” he said.