The Mid-Atlantic Electric School Bus Experience Project (MEEP) will provide schools with an introduction to electric school bus technology. Available to select Districts in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and DC, the project is supported in large part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The project will provide a wide range of stakeholders with needed information about electric school buses, allow school districts to gain experience with electric school buses from multiple manufacturers, evaluate vehicle performance (including comparison to baseline conventional fuel buses), and provide findings that can be used by both participating school districts and others to make intelligent decisions about incorporating advanced fuel technologies into their fleets.
The main components of the electric school bus experience are:
- Support to school districts to plan for deployment including identification of appropriate routes and
- Engagement of a wide audience of stakeholders to build awareness of electric school buses and educate them about the partnerships and activities needed to support deployment;
- Staff training to support operations and collect data on vehicle performance; and
- Data collection throughout the experience and data analysis to support evaluation of each experience and an overall evaluation of the project.
School Participation
In this project, demonstration electric buses from major manufacturers will be deployed by selected school districts (School Partners). The MEEP team will work with individual districts to customize the deployment term and details based on vehicle availability, district preference, etc. School Partners may include school districts, schools, or supervisory unions. For school entities utilizing transportation contractors, the school bus contractor may apply directly and note the district(s) where they intend to utilize the demonstration bus. The MEEP Team is interested in working with at least one school entity per state/region over the three-year term of the project, and may consider additional entities per state/region if future schedules allow.
Consideration Priority
School Partners that can demonstrate the following will be given priority for participating in the project:
- Strong operational candidates for electric bus adoption and an expressed interest in permanently adding battery electric school buses into their fleets;
- Operating in the service areas of utilities cooperating in the project;
- Diversity of operating environments that can be supported by electric buses to test a range of conditions that may impact vehicle performance;
- Those who show increased schedule flexibility, such as those capable of operating buses in the summer and during school breaks to help with additional data collection and scheduling of deployments with electric school bus manufacturers.
The project team will also consider geographic diversity (urban, rural, suburban), environmental justice status, and air quality data to support selection of school districts and ensure a variety of communities that can benefit from electric school bus adoption are exposed to the technology.
We are now accepting applications for the ‘20/’21, ‘21/’22 and ‘22/’23 school years on a rolling basis, and plan to select at least one school fleet per state/region. Strong interest is expected and spots are limited so interested fleets should apply as soon as possible! School districts can submit an application now and select dates for future years if they need additional time.
Request for Qualifications
Virginia Clean Cities is each seeking qualifications from prospective School Partners. This Request for Qualifications is intended to determine basic eligibility and level of commitment in order to select School Partners.
Submission Details
Interested candidates should respond to the following questions in the MEEP Short-Term Demonstration RFQ application.
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Project partners include: Virginia Clean Cities at James Madison University (lead), Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition, Eastern Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Transportation, Maryland Clean Cities, New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition, VEIC, National Association for Pupil Transportation, Al Pollard of the Energy Foundation, Generation 180, Bus Manufacturers (Thomas Built / Proterra / Blue Bird), State Air Agencies (VA DEQ / MDE / NJ DEP) and Regional Electric Utilities (Dominion Energy / BGE / PEPCO / Exelon).