The School Bus Has a Second Shift

Dominique Wu · October 3, 2026 · Energy & Mobility

The yellow school bus is a wonderfully unglamorous place to look for the future.

It has a route, a timetable, and absolutely no interest in your innovation keynote. Children need to get to school. The bus needs to be ready.

But give that bus a battery, and the hours between trips become interesting. With the right equipment and agreements, a parked electric school bus can send stored electricity back to the grid.

Suddenly, the bus depot belongs in a conversation about energy infrastructure. And possibly in the curriculum at the community college down the road.

A battery with somewhere to be

Vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, means electricity can travel in both directions: into the bus to charge it, and out again to support the grid.

School buses have an appealing rhythm for this. Their large batteries and long parked periods, especially in summer, can create opportunities to share energy. But a summer route, an afternoon pickup, or a field trip still gets priority. The Department of Energy’s school bus planning guide points to that potential while noting that most bidirectional programs remain in pilot phases.

There’s no bonus electricity hiding under the seats. The battery stores energy charged earlier. The useful trick is timing: moving some of that electricity to a moment when the grid needs it, while keeping enough for the bus’s next job.

That last part deserves its own seatbelt.

This is already happening

In August 2024, PG&E reported the deployment of 74 electric school buses serving Oakland Unified, each with a bidirectional charger. The project also required serious work behind the fence: a new transformer, poles, underground infrastructure, and 2.7 megawatts of electrical capacity. PG&E’s deployment account makes the physical scale clear.

The buses get the photographs. The trenching makes the project possible.

For an example of energy actually returned, Highland Electric Fleets reports that its Beverly, Massachusetts, program used three school buses to send a cumulative 27.7 megawatt-hours to the grid over 316 hours during the summers of 2021 through 2024. Those are the operator’s reported results from that particular program. They are useful evidence of operation, without being a forecast for somebody else’s fleet. Highland’s project summary

A depot in another town has its own routes, utility rules, weather, and costs. Copying the bus order won’t copy the outcome.

The charger comes with homework

Start with managed charging: deciding when buses charge and how much power they draw, while making sure they’re ready to leave. That can help control electricity costs and site demand without sending power back. DOE treats managed and bidirectional charging as related but separate tools.

V2G adds another layer. The bus and charger must support it. Software has to coordinate them. The utility must allow the connection. Battery warranties, energy reserves, and participation terms need checking before anyone counts possible payments. The planning guide is a useful starting checklist.

Then do the local arithmetic. Include installation, utility upgrades, maintenance, software, and the electricity needed to recharge. Find out who receives any program payments and who carries the costs. Possible revenue belongs in a carefully tested scenario, not the category called “money we already have.”

And exporting to the grid does not automatically turn a bus into a school’s blackout backup. Powering a building during an outage requires a suitable design and protective equipment that prevents unsafe backfeeding. DOE’s infrastructure training spells out that extra work.

The people are part of the infrastructure

Here’s where the education opportunity gets good.

Someone needs to recognize a charging fault, understand the schedule, and know when to stop and call a qualified technician. The depot’s new capabilities depend on people being comfortable with the equipment.

Community colleges already have a role here. In June 2026, Cerritos College reported that an electric school bus education initiative developed curriculum and trained college faculty, who then trained 97 technicians statewide. That’s a concrete workforce result, rather than a promise about future jobs. Cerritos College’s announcement

Now imagine extending that connection into a learning partnership between a district, its utility, and a nearby college.

Students could use anonymized operating data to build a charging plan. Give them a cold morning, a longer route, and a charger that stops working. Ask them to explain the trade-offs to a transportation manager.

A simulated depot could let learners rehearse decisions before approaching real equipment. Hands-on work would still need qualified supervision and proper safety training. The interesting assignment is making a plan that survives a messy day.

There’s room for technical troubleshooting, data analysis, and clear communication in the same project. The existing workforce should help shape it. Drivers and maintenance teams know which beautifully optimized plans fall apart before breakfast.

Start with the parking hours

A useful first meeting would bring together transportation staff, facilities staff, the utility, and a local training partner.

Put the route schedule beside the electricity bill. Ask when buses are genuinely available, what charging the site can support, and which skills the team needs.

Then decide whether managed charging is enough for now, whether V2G merits a small pilot, and what evidence would justify expanding it.

Track buses ready on time, charger reliability, actual costs, and energy delivered. Give the boring numbers a starring role.

The yellow bus already connects a neighborhood to a classroom. With thoughtful engineering and training, its parking space could become part of the energy system, too.

A pretty interesting second shift.