NEWS

Beep, beep! Electric school buses coming here soon

Patrick Hite
Staunton News Leader
An electric bus bound for Waynesboro was on display at a press conference in October. In addition to Waynesboro, Augusta County will now be receiving two electric buses following school board approval on Nov. 5.

VERONA - Augusta County will be adding two new school buses to its fleet, but these will be unique.

At its meeting Thursday night, the Augusta County School Board approved the purchase of two electric buses at a cost of $111,601 each. An electric bus would typically cost $350,000, but Dominion Energy is paying the difference between the cost of an electric bus and a diesel bus for school divisions.

Dominion is also installing a charging station at the bus garage in Fishersville at no cost to Augusta County.

The school division will join Waynesboro Public Schools as one of 16 school divisions in the state to be part of the initial rollout of these buses. 

Waynesboro announced its purchase of the buses last January, but at that time Augusta County wasn't part of the program. Superintendent Eric Bond said another school division decided against the purchase and Augusta County was then asked to join.

Over the life of each bus, which is projected to be 15 years, Augusta County estimates it will save $70,291 per bus compared to a traditional diesel engine bus. That includes about $6,000 per year in the cost of fuel minus the additional options required by Dominion Energy. 

Among those options are three-point seatbelts that will be installed on the 2021 Thomas Built Buses. The cost of those seatbelts runs just under $10,000 per bus. 

The buses are expected to be delivered by mid-December, and training for drivers and mechanics will be provided by Sonny Merryman. Terry Lafon, executive director of transportation for Augusta County Public Schools, anticipates having the buses on the road for second semester. 

The buses are powered by two 110kWh Proterra batteries mounted between the chassis frame rails. The buses are much quieter than a diesel bus, so quiet that two noise emitters are located in the front and rear bumpers to produce a sound similar to a train whistle to alert waiting students and pedestrians when the bus is approaching.

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Each bus is expected to have a range of 135 to 140 miles per charge. It takes between three and three-and-a-half hours to charge a bus. 

The batteries, which have a 15-year warranty, will store and inject energy onto Dominion Power's electric grid during periods of high demand when buses are not needed for transport. They can also serve as mobile power stations during emergencies.

In its second phase, Dominion plans to introduce 1,500 additional electric buses in Virginia school systems by 2025. By phase three the goal is to have 50% of all diesel bus replacements be electric by 2025 and 100% by 2030.

Prior to the meeting, School Board Chair Nick Collins asked Bond if there was a way that every district could see the buses from time to time. Bond said during the meeting that they have looked at plans to do that, but there are some barriers to making that happen.

"But I don't know if they're insurmountable," Bond said. 

On Monday, Lafon said he expects one bus to be kept in the Wilson Memorial High School district where the bus garage is located, while the other may rotate among the other four high school districts.  

Board member Tim Swortzel asked if there were any insurance savings for seat belts. Bond said the school division hasn't looked into that yet. 

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