PG&E and The Mobility House Announce Commissioning of California's Vehicle-to-Grid Electric School Bus Fleet with Fremont Unified School District
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), in partnership with Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) and The Mobility House has announced the commissioning of California's advanced vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electric school bus fleets.
With the installation of 22 electric vehicle chargers, 14 previously installed low-power chargers, six high-power bidirectional V2G direct current (DC) fast chargers, and two additional high-power unidirectional chargers planned for 2026, FUSD is equipped to power and manage an increasing fleet of 14 electric school buses, including four Thomas Built and 10 Blue Bird buses.
The infrastructure will support the displacement of six internal combustion engine buses, with four new electric buses entering service in 2025 and two more in 2026.
The project is led by The Mobility House (TMH) under the California Energy Commission-funded Replicable Vehicle-to-X Deployment Study (RVXDS). TMH's charge management platform, ChargePilot, will optimize both charging and discharging of the fleet using open standards.
As an aggregator, ChargePilot will also help FUSD's participation in PG&E's Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) by responding to OpenADR signals, turning school buses into grid assets supporting reliability during peak demand.
To enable this transformation, PG&E upgraded the site's electrical infrastructure, including:
- A new 480 volt 3-phase service entrance (upgraded from 208V)
- A 750 kVA transformer
- Facilitated installation of a 2,500 Amp switchgear to meet current and future charging needs
PG&E expedited the energization process through a Rule 15/16 service upgrade, ensuring the site accommodates the full allocation of six V2G DC fast chargers. Rules 15 and 16 are electric utility rules in California outlining the requirements for service line extensions, which are lines connecting the distribution lines to the customers' electric meters.
The site is also interconnected through Rule 21, allowing energy export and additional revenue opportunities for the school. Electric Rule 21 describes the interconnection, operating and metering requirements for generation facilities to be connected to an investor-owned utility's (IOUs) distribution and transmission system.
The announcement highlights the second school district participating in PG&E's commercial fleet Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) pilot, following the deployment with Zum and Oakland Unified School District in 2024. Fremont USD's participation in PG&E's EV Fleet program, which began in 2019, has supported 17 electric school buses and 13 electric medium-duty vehicles with incentives for infrastructure and charging equipment.
The project is made possible through the collaboration of: The Mobility House, Polara, World Resources Institute, Center for Transportation and the Environment and PG&E. The partners are helping Fremont USD achieve cleaner, more resilient future.