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A year after idling its first electric buses because of reliability problems, the transit agency serving Minneapolis and St. Paul has put the vehicles back on the road and released a plan to begin electrifying more of its bus fleet.
Metro Transit’s Zero-Emission Bus Transition Plan was submitted to the Legislature in February. It calls for spending a fifth of its bus acquisition budget over the next five years to purchase more than 100 electric models.
The plan comes as Metro Transit works to catch up with agencies in comparable cities and recover from a bumpy pilot program that resulted in the sidelining of eight 60-foot articulated buses for about a year while it addressed mechanical and charging problems. The buses were placed back in service in December.
Since then, “they have been performing very well,” said Nick Thompson, Metro Transit’s deputy general manager for capital programs. The buses were built by Minnesota company New Flyer, which made significant software upgrades.
The agency’s net-zero bus plan details the problems experienced during its pilot program. The electric buses generated a high number of service calls compared to its diesel buses, but those dropped by two-thirds following upgrades and incremental maintenance.
The transit agency reconfigured heating controls and addressed wheel slippage issues. All of the Siemens chargers were replaced in 2021 while still under warranty due to technical problems that included blown fuses and premature transformer failure.
It’s been about two decades since Metro Transit introduced electric-diesel hybrid buses, which now constitute more than 10% of its 900 vehicle bus fleet. The agency started using particulate matter traps in 2007 and introduced diesel exhaust fluid three years later to reduce nitrous oxide emissions. In 2012, Metro Transit added solar to facilities and in 2016 began testing non-revenue electric transit vehicles.
The net-zero emissions report was requested and funded by the Legislature, which allocated $250,000 last year for the study. Other transit agencies highlighted in the report are moving faster on electrification. Toronto plans to add 300 electric vehicles by 2025. Seattle is aiming for 250 by 2028.
Net-zero buses will be effective in reducing particulates and other pollutants in low-income neighborhoods that suffer the highest levels of greenhouse gases and respiratory-related illnesses. But the overall impact may be minimal. The state’s transit and school bus fleet produce just .7% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, with Metro Transit constituting .4% of that total. In contrast, passenger vehicles, including light-duty trucks, represent nearly 58% of emissions. Metro Transit believes system improvements will help move people out of cars and onto transit.
Thompson said Metro Transit feels confident about the future of electric buses because the technology continues to improve. Stakeholders who participated in the study universally supported more investment in electric buses. “We did find the interest among riders and stakeholders surprised us, in a good way,” Thompson said.
Metro Transit’s plan focuses on using standard-length, 40-foot electric buses in core neighborhoods. The challenges during the pilot program were in part due to its use of longer, 60-foot articulated buses on a suburban commuter route that only allowed them to partially recharge their batteries after completing routes.
“Our zero-emission bus plan assumes our deployment and expansion of electric buses would be without inline chargers,” Thompson said. “We want to secure buses that can be charged overnight and then operate their routes during the day on that charge.”
Equity was one measure for route selection, as was proximity to five bus garages with chargers. A new garage opening next March near the agency’s headquarters near downtown Minneapolis will be able to accommodate several electric buses serving the core cities.
Riders will not see electric buses on express routes or bus rapid transit corridors with articulated buses, Thompson said. Those routes may have electric buses in the future, but they will not be a priority for now, he said. Two upcoming new lines connecting St. Paul with northern and eastern suburbs will use electric buses.
Still, some advocates want faster adoption of net-zero buses. Sam Rockwell, executive director of the transit advocacy organization Move Minnesota, questioned why the agency did not commit to replacing all buses with electric models or consider trolleybuses operated by overhead electric lines. The agency “shouldn’t be buying diesel buses anymore,” he said.
One big factor is funding. The Legislature has not decided how much money Metro Transit will receive to help pay for the new buses. Gov. Tim Walz has recommended $3.2 million in his proposed state budget, enough to pay for just four electric buses. State Rep. Frank Hornstein, a Minneapolis Democrat, said legislators will propose more money, but the amount has not been determined.
“I think we have a broader challenge of transit funding and making sure we can build for a 21st-century system that gets people where they want to go, when they want to go, and quickly,” Hornstein said.
The plan puts the agency in a position to win federal funding under last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law, which includes $7.5 billion for electric bus expansion to transit agencies with an electrification plan. “We’re ahead of other markets because we’re done and ready,” Thompson said. In addition, he said the agency expects prices will drop, just as diesel hybrid buses did after the agency first began buying them 20 years ago.
Metro Transit has already ordered eight Proterra 40-foot buses using federal grant money. The agency has also applied but has not received approval for federal infrastructure funding to buy electric buses from the bus manufacturer Gillig. The agency plans a general procurement for electric buses later this year, allowing manufacturers to compete against one another for a contract that will last several years.
Metro Transit must also retrofit bus garages with chargers, an expensive proposition. Xcel Energy, the agency’s partner, needs to ensure the electric grid is ready to serve those charging bays. However, national data on electric buses show they get an equivalent of 16.5 miles to a gallon compared to 3.8 miles for a diesel fleet.
Joshua Houdek, senior program manager for land use and transportation at the Sierra Club, said he had been hopeful that problems in the initial electric bus pilot would not dissuade the agency from further investment. “The Metro Transit struggled with the first buses but got them working and back on the road again,” he said. “The experience taught the agency that, for now, the best buses that work for the system will be shorter buses running on tight urban routes that serve a lot of riders. This is efficient and equitable.”
Alireza Khani, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, recently helped author a study of bus electrification in the Twin Cities. The results showed the five most beneficial routes roughly matched Metro Transit’s approach. The routes had among the highest ridership and traveled through diverse, low-income communities. “I think it makes sense to prioritize those neighborhoods and buses that run in those neighborhoods,” Khani said.
Thompson said much still needs to be learned as electric buses move into the system. For example, the agency wants to continue to understand how bitterly cold weather impacts performance. In borrowing a practice from Duluth, the state’s first transit agency to have electric buses, Metro Transit will use natural gas heaters to avoid draining the batteries to heat buses, he said.
Mechanics must also be trained to work on electric buses, which has been a good problem to have, he said. “We have a workforce that actually just wants to work on the vehicles and we see [electric buses] as a way to attract workforce,” he said.
Thompson said net-zero buses are reshaping how Metro Transit powers the region’s bus transportation system and with that challenge will inevitably come hiccups that will lead to more operational changes. “This still is a technology in its infancy and is evolving very quickly,” he said.
A lack of inventory from auto manufacturers and a shortage of fast-charging options in rural areas are among the factors slowing progress toward Minnesota’s state government fleet electrification goal.
The Minnesota Department of Administration set a target in 2020 to make 20% of its vehicle fleet electric by 2027, part of an overall strategy to reduce state fleet fossil fuel consumption by 30% by 2027 from a 2017 baseline.
The state would have had to replace more than 400 gas vehicles with electric models per year since 2021 to meet that target, but state officials contacted by the Energy News Network were unable to say exactly how many electric vehicles the state has purchased overall. The Department of Transportation, a leader in electric vehicles among agencies, has 14. The Department of Natural Resources has four.
“We’re moving forward slower than I would like,” said Holly Gustner, fleet and surplus director for the Department of Administration.
The state has more than 15,000 vehicles, with the most progress on electrification in the light-duty category, which represents a third of the vehicles.
In 2021, the state’s light-duty category was dominated by flex-fuel vehicles capable of running on high ethanol blends, accounting for 55%. Hybrids followed at 22% and regular internal combustion engines at 15%. The rest were electric, plug-in hybrid and diesel-run models.
The state’s plug-in electric, hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles contributed to a 17% drop in emissions from light-duty vehicles in 2020 and 2021, according to administration data.
Vehicle cost plays a role when agencies make purchasing decisions, but the total cost of ownership favors electric. While electric vehicles command a higher initial expense, electricity costs less than gas, and the cars require less maintenance, said Marcus Grubbs, director of the Department of Administration’s Office of Enterprise Sustainability. Agencies also like the advantage of having fully charged vehicles available every morning so staff will not have to refuel during the day.
But agency leaders say many state vehicles have no easy electric replacement option yet, and manufacturers of those that do — typically cars, pickups and SUVs in the light-duty category — are often months behind in deliveries.
Automakers have been prioritizing states such as California and Massachusetts, which have requirements to make electric vehicles available. Gustner said one factor expected to increase Minnesota’s access to electric vehicles is its adoption of clean car standards, which have helped increase supply in other states as their demand increased. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency adopted the California-developed standards last year and has been finalizing rules.
“I think once that rulemaking is completed, and we actually sign off as one of the clean car states, I think we’re going to see more cars coming this way,” Gustner said.
Grubbs said the government uses vehicles in such specific ways that finding electric replacements has not been easy. As an example, he pointed to a new electric transit van that “looked great” until he discovered it had no lift for disabled passengers.
“Availability has been the greatest challenge,” said Jed Falgren, state maintenance engineer with the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
His agency may have the biggest obstacles in meeting the state goal because light-duty vehicles are only 13% of its fleet. The rest are medium- and heavy-duty vehicles — including 800 snowplows — which currently have no practical electric replacement models available, he said.
Falgren said the agency has spoken to trucking manufacturers about replacing heavier vehicles with models fueled by hydrogen or compressed natural gas, which pollute less than plows now being used, he said.
New, greener snow plow models have begun to come onto the market, but how well they work remains a question. For example, a recent test in New York City found electric snowplows “basically conked out after four hours,” according to a city official there.
“Our plow trucks have got to run and be available to run 24 hours a day,” Falgren said. “So there’s a lot of technological nuts to crack before we can go widespread on some of those [vehicles].”
The Department of Natural Resources wants to add to its four-vehicle electric fleet and has ordered more. Aaron Cisewski, fleet and materials manager in the DNR’s Operations Services Division, said the agency covers a huge geographical area of Minnesota, with state parks and other offices spread far apart. Employees have expressed concerns about range reduction caused by cold weather and trailer towing, which the agency does a lot of in state parks.
The department has deployed Chevy Bolts in state parks, where they operate in a limited area and are recharged nightly, he said.
Gustner said developing a charging network for state vehicles has been a challenge. Parts of the system are robust, such as around the Capitol complex, where 65 chargers operate. But outstate Minnesota is a different story even as the state continues to add chargers in more rural locations.
Fast chargers are becoming a priority because most state workers will be “topping off” their vehicles rather than needing a full charge, Gustner added. But for now, the charging infrastructure in some areas “does not enable the flexibility [of long-distance travel] right now, or doesn’t exist, or isn’t perceived to exist,” he said.
Minnesota is better poised, despite the weather, to take advantage of transitioning to electric vehicles than some other states. The state government could replace more than half of its light-duty vehicles, a better average than Colorado or North Carolina, according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2022 study of state fleet electrification.
Using 2-year-old data, the study found the driving range of electric vehicles on the market can meet 93% of the state’s light-duty needs. The study projected a $4.7 million savings over the lifetime of vehicles and a reduction of more than 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases.
While the new clean car standards are expected to help, Brendan Jordan, vice president of transportation and fuels at the Great Plains Institute, said Minnesota’s state government could have an easier time procuring electric vehicles if the state had additional policies that incentivize their purchase by residents and businesses.
“Other states offer incentives on the medium- and heavy-duty side, which we don’t offer,” he said. “Companies look at what kind of policy environments are in place when they’re deciding where to ship the cars.”
The Minnesota Future Fuels Coalition, which includes the Great Plains Institute and Energy News Network publisher Fresh Energy, has been advocating for the recently introduced Clean Transportation Standard Act that would require the carbon density of fuels to decline to zero by 2040.
There’s also legislation that would “establish a preference” for electric vehicles for the state’s fleet. Other preferred vehicles include hybrids and those that can run on cleaner fuel. The law would solidify a preference already practiced by agencies.
Should either or both bills pass, they would give the state government an extra benefit of removing some obstacles from electric vehicle acquisitions, Jordan said.
Either way, preparations continue for an electric future. With assistance from Xcel Energy and a consultant, MnDOT created a software tool that uses data captured from its vehicle fleet to determine suitable electric replacements, he said. In addition, plans are emerging for training mechanics to work on light-duty electric vehicles.
And the agency must get used to paying more upfront for electric vehicles while understanding the cost of ownership will be less in the long run.
“MnDOT does not mind being on the leading edge of technologies,” Falgren said. “The leading edge is a good spot to be.”
As a historic 10-day heat wave threatened brownouts across California last summer, a small San Diego County school district did its part to help: It captured excess power from its electric school buses and sent it back to the state’s overwhelmed grid.
The eight school buses provided enough power for 452 homes each day of the heat wave, and the buses were recharged only during off hours when the grid was not strained.
California energy officials have high hopes that this new power source, called bidirectional charging, will boost California’s power supply as it ramps up its ambitious agenda of electrifying its cars, trucks and buses while switching to 100% clean energy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called two-way charging technology a “game changer,” saying “this is the future” during a speech last September, about a week after the heat wave ended.
This year, a bill already approved by the state Senate in a 29-9 vote would require all new electric cars sold in California to be equipped with bidirectional technology by 2030. In the Assembly, two committees approved the bill earlier this month and it is now under consideration by a third.
This two-way charging has big potential — but also faces big obstacles. By 2035, California expects to have 12.5 million electric cars on the road, but it’s an open question how much California can rely on them to feed the grid. Automakers say the technology would add thousands of dollars to the cost of an electric car, and California’s utilities are still sorting out how to pay ratepayers for selling them the kilowatt hours.
The ability to use electric cars, trucks and buses to feed energy back into the grid would be especially helpful during peak times for energy use, such as heatwaves. But relying on vehicles as a year-round power source may not be practical — at least not yet.
“It’s a great idea conceptually…but we haven’t had the time to flesh out the details of what needs to happen for California to be able to power itself on electric vehicles,” said Orville Thomas, state policy director for CALSTART, a sustainable energy nonprofit.
“It should be on the menu of options that California has. Is it going to be the number one option? Definitely not.”
So far, its use has been limited in California. Pacific Gas and Electric has a pilot program — the first in the nation — that lets up to 1,000 residential customers with bidirectional chargers sell power back to the utility. Some school districts also are experimenting with it.
Only about half a dozen electric car models currently are equipped with bidirectional capabilities, including the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Nissan Leaf and Ford F-150 Lightning. Tesla announced recently that all its models will have it by 2025.
Electric vehicles convert one type of energy, alternating current electricity, into another, direct current, which is stored in a battery. Bidirectional charging means that an electric vehicle can convert the energy it has stored in its battery and send it to other sources, such as home appliances or back to the grid.
Willett M. Kempton, a University of Delaware professor who has studied bidirectional charging for more than two decades, said the vast majority of the time a vehicle is parked and not using electricity.
“Five percent of the time you’re using the car and you want to have enough energy — electricity or gasoline — to get to where you’re going and back. But most of the time, it’s just sitting there and some other use could be made of it,” he said.
Kempton said these vehicles, properly managed, could be sources of reserve energy, supplanting backup sources that burn fossil fuels.
Gregory Poilasne, co-founder and CEO of Nuvve Holding Corp., which sells electric fleet charging services, said a big challenge is that cars are unreliable energy assets. “At any time, somebody might come in and unplug the car,” he said. But he added, as the technology becomes more reliable and affordable, bidirectional cars and fleets should increase.
In Denmark, bidirectional charging earns electric vehicle fleet owners who sell power to the grid $3,000 per vehicle a year, Poilasne said, adding that this reduces the average total cost of electric car ownership by about 40%.
But citing the high cost, automakers oppose the Senate bill that would mandate the chargers for all new cars sold in California by 2030. It would increase the average cost of an electric car by $3,700, according to an opposition letter written by Curt Augustine of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Ford and other major auto companies.
About $3,000 of that cost would be adding battery capacity to meet warranty requirements, while other costs are for hardware and software.
“This technology is a competitive matter between vehicle manufacturers and should remain that way,” Augustine wrote. “Not all customers will see an advantage of bidirectional charging, and therefore, should not have to pay more for a technology that they will not use.”
Thomas of CALSTART agreed, saying it should be optional.
“There might be a situation where there are people that want to do it and will pay a little extra for a car that is bidirectional, but there will also be people that just want to use a vehicle for driving,” he said. “Do we raise the price of electric vehicles for everybody?”
But Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Oakland who authored SB 233, said she wants to ensure that automakers don’t reserve the technology for only their higher-end models. She said since the relatively affordable Nissan Leaf has it, it can be widely available.
Skinner said all consumers would benefit from the technology by selling energy to the grid or using the energy in emergencies. But she said another important reason is that it could end reliance on diesel generators during power emergencies like during wildfires.
“If you have an EV you don’t need that diesel generator,” Skinner said. “Why would we want to encourage diesel generators? They’re extremely polluting.”
Jeffrey Lu, an air pollution specialist with the California Energy Commission’s vehicle-grid integration unit, said the state is working with owners to identify the best times to charge — called smart charging — to protect the grid. Bidirectional charging takes the concept a step further, he said.
The Energy Commission is not yet ready to say how reliant California will be on bidirectional charging to provide sufficient power and meet the state’s 2045 mandate for carbon-free electricity.
“We’re fairly early in this process. California is very committed to load flexibility broadly, but where that load flexibility specifically comes from, how many megawatts or gigawatts are coming from any particular kind of resource? We’re working on that,” he said.
California’s utilities are running pilot projects and studying how bidirectional charging might work and how electric car owners could be compensated for selling energy to the grid.
The California Public Utilities Commission has studied the issue for more than a decade, said spokesperson Terrie D. Prosper, including funding pilot projects and establishing two working groups.
Last year many utilities signed a “Vehicle to Everything” memorandum of understanding with car manufacturers, state agencies, the federal government and others seeking to accelerate all aspects of bidirectional charging.
Southern California Edison, which serves about 5 million businesses and residences, wants to go beyond using bidirectional charging as just an emergency backup.
Chanel Parson, Edison’s director of electrification, said the utility is working on a rate program that would allow customers to sell their power back to the grid every day of the year.
“By selling it back to the grid when our rates are more expensive, then that actually helps reduce customers’ energy bills. And it could be so economically attractive that they’re actually making money,” she said.
Pacific Gas and Electric, which serves 5.5 million electric customers in Northern California, said it is aggressively looking to build what it calls a robust vehicle-to-grid-integration. It has partnerships with BMW of North America, Ford Motor Company and General Motors exploring bidirectional charging.
The utility last year launched the nation’s first bidirectional charging pilot available to residential customers, offering up to 1,000 customers $2,500 for enrolling and up to an additional $2,175, depending on their participation.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also is conducting a pilot project using a small fleet of its Nissan Leafs. The utility hopes the technology will eventually provide power during peak load times.
“Five years is definitely within reach,” said José María Paz, the utility’s project manager for vehicle-to-grid integration. “Technology is advancing quite fast.”
The electric school buses at the Cajon Valley Union School District in San Diego County are among a number of school district pilot projects in California. Experts see school buses as a good option for two-way charging because they have set routes and are often parked during peak load times between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Nationally, Nuvve has about 350 school buses connected to its platform.
At the Cajon Valley district, eight electric buses sent 767 kilowatt hours of power back to the grid during the heat wave between Aug. 17 and Sept. 9, according to Nuvve.
Working with Nuvve, the buses power up when energy is less expensive, said Tysen Brodwolf, the district’s transportation director. Brodwolf said there are still several quirks, including the chargers not communicating properly with the grid or someone improperly plugging in a bus.
“But we’re getting there every day,” Brodwolf said. “We’re working through all those bumps and obviously, when you take on a pilot project, you have to take that into consideration that things aren’t necessarily going to go smoothly.”
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