Project Overview
Gradient Xergy, in collaboration with New Buildings Institute, designed and sourced the charging layout for an upcoming electric school bus fleet in Oregon’s Hood River School District. The “bus barn” will contribute to the first electric school bus and microgrid pilot in the nation (MOVER), which will improve energy resilience, increase local investment, and reduce fossil fuel consumption. The first bus powered up in January 2025, kicking off a new era of grid stability for Hood River!
Strategy
- Fleet electrification expertise
- Fleet electrification was new to most of the project’s stakeholders. Our consultants have over 13 years of experience with charging infrastructure rollouts. This technical expertise now serves as best practices in the industry.
- Hands-on, iterative planning
- Our involvement went beyond design. Our consultants visited the site, worked with the utility to forecast charging needs, optioned and selected charging hardware and software, and maintained open lines of communication with the school district to ensure the project deliverables were met.
- Interoperability
- We selected charging hardware with dedication to open source – Meaning it is future-proofed for hardware and software changes that will flex with the industry and the school’s needs.
- Make-Ready
- We advocated for more chargers than the current number of buses and a new transformer to accommodate the expected growth of the fleet. This eliminates the future cost of re-digging to install EVSE. It will also make it easier for the district to apply for future grants.
Outcomes
- “Bus barn” with 8 chargers that accommodate various bus types and software interoperability
- New transformer onsite which accounts for future expansion
- Cost modeling of utility energy costs
MIKE SMITH, CTO
“Mike was involved in some of the earliest EV charging that was installed in the southeast. Having that expertise to share and avoid pitfalls is really important.” – Jon Jantz, CEO