In 2022, GreenPower Motor Co. signed a lease/purchase agreement with the state government to manufacture zero-emission battery-powered buses at a facility in South Charleston. The state also supported the endeavor by purchasing 41 of GreenPower's buses for $15 million to be used in West Virginia schools.
In 2023, GreenPower also received a federal grant for more than $18 million to deploy electric buses in seven West Virginia counties. The company is expecting to deliver 88 buses to West Virginia in 2025.
While details are not final, Kanawha County Schools could receive as many as 28 or 29 battery-powered buses in the push for cleaner and greener fuel alternatives, transportation director Jason Redman said. The plan is to get those buses on the road as soon as possible after they are delivered, he added.
The buses will be valuable additions to the Kanawha County Schools fleet, Superintendent Tom Williams said. That those buses are manufactured in Kanawha County — at a facility that employs KCS alumni — makes the addition even more poignant, he said.
"We look forward to getting our first electric bus on the road soon," Williams said. We're proud that Kanawha County Schools alumni are part of the GreenPower team that is building buses for us and districts across the state and county. GreenPower provides good-paying jobs to local folks, allowing them to stay in Kanawha County. Electric buses are a clean, efficient way to transport our students and hold great potential for the future."
PREPARING FOR THE INFLUX OF ELECTRIC BUSES
Kanawha County Schools maintains about 200 buses in its fleet and has already begun incorporating some battery-powered models, Redman said.
The district received its first GreenPower bus — a Nano Beast Type A model lift bus — in December and expects to add another battery-powered bus in June.
Electric school buses cost $300,000 to $400,000, while similarly sized diesel buses cost around $125,000 to $150,000. However, fuel costs for electric buses are estimated to be around $0.14 to $0.22 per mile, compared to around $0.36 per mile for diesel buses with fuel prices at $2.50 per gallon.
Although electric buses are more expensive, they are an attractive option for school districts because the federal and state governments offer incentives to districts that use electric buses, Redman said.
"The state is really pushing green buses — electric buses — and they're offering some great grants and some great tax credits," he said.
Charging infrastructure will be a key consideration in adding electric buses to the fleet, Redman said. Great care must be taken to install charging infrastructure in the right locations in order to maximize range and efficiency on bus routes, he said.
On its website, GreenPower advertises its "Beast" model school bus as having a maximum range of up to 150 miles.
The school district is considering its existing bus terminals for optimal positioning of charging stations, Redman said. Those terminals are located at:
- East Bank
- Elkview
- Sissonville
- South Charleston
- St. Albans
While the school system won't have to pay for buses it's receiving from the state, there will be a cost to charge and maintain them, Redman said.
"Charging infrastructure is huge and it is costly," he said. "We're going to try to get as many grants as we can to pay for infrastructure."
Redman said he's been a passenger in GreenPower buses and has been impressed with their overall performance.
"But I think we have the perfect terrain, and we have the size fleet, to really make these electric buses very usable and cost effective for us," he said.
While electric buses are being incorporated, diesel buses won't disappear from the fleet anytime soon. Last week, the Kanawha County Board of Education approved the purchase of three 2026 Thomas 77 diesel passenger buses in the amount of $417,867 from Matheny Motors in Parkersburg.
AN EYE TOWARD EFFICIENCY
Electric vehicles continue to progress at an impressive rate, Redman said, but the reliability of diesel buses will be a necessity as Kanawha County Schools continues to test and implement new technology.
Redman is a former principal at Nitro High School and has been transportation director since January. In addition to preparing for the influx of electric buses, the transportation department has been examining the county's bus routes, to look for ways to improve efficiency.
"I met with all five of our terminals, to really look at our routes and make sure we're doing things efficiently," he said. "We have 155 routes. Each of those routes run two to four morning runs and two to four afternoon runs, so we run 740 runs total in Kanawha County. We have 8,214 stops on a daily basis."
One of the department's goals is to consolidate 5 percent of the county's routes, to build a time margin into the schedule, Redman said.
Redman said the transportation department also continues to deal with a shortage of bus drivers. There are nine vacancies spread over the five terminals.
"We've trained 22 people since November to be bus drivers. Four of those people have completed the process. Examining the process, it is a very long process," he said.
The department is focusing on maintaining better communication with trainees, to help more of them complete the requirements to become drivers.
"We need to work on communicating better with trainees, reaching out to see where they are in the process," he said. "We've actually been able to open up some aide positions in our terminals, so our trainees are actually working in our terminals. So they can almost learn on the job. That has been very, very successful."
©2024 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
