March 2, 2020

Mass. school district to receive e-buses

Beverly Public Schools in Massachusetts will be rolling out a fleet of electric school buses along with a 60 kW charging system, the first electric school bus in the district.

The electric school buses and the charging system will be provided by Proterra through an agreement with Highland Electric Transportation, who secured grant funding for the project from Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The department received these funds through the VW Settlement Trust and opened the program to local groups.

According to this agreement, Highland will own, fuel and pay for maintenance of the Proterra Thomas Built Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley buses, while the Beverly transportation department will continue to operate the vehicles. Highland expects the switch to electric school buses to save the city money.

“Beverly is excited to be acquiring our first electric school bus by partnering with Highland Electric Transportation,” Mayor Michael Cahill said in a statement. “This electric school bus will produce zero greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our school district carbon emissions significantly. In addition, the total cost of ownership in the long term will save the city valuable tax dollars. Transitioning our diesel school bus fleet to all-electric is an important part of addressing climate change and protecting the health of thousands of school children in our City.”

The Thomas Built Buses feature 220 kWh of energy capacity powered by Proterra and charge in about three hours with the fast-charging system.

Moving forward, Highland and the local utility, National Grid, are collaborating on developing a vehicle-to-grid strategy with the electric school buses.