GATES, N.Y. — As New York state pushes school districts to transition to electric buses, the Gates-Chili Central School District already has 15 in its fleet and the district says despite the recent bitter cold, they are performing effectively.
Sue Satora has been a Gates-Chili bus driver for more than a decade, “I love the kids, they’re a lot of fun,” she tells News10NBC. She was assigned an electric bus a few years ago and appreciates the quieter ride, which allows her to hear the students better. “I plug it in when I’m done with my run and come back, unplug it and I’m ready to go,” she says.
The district has leveraged state grants to expand its electric fleet, with 20% of its buses now running on electricity. “They work for our district very well, we don’t really have major concerns at this point,” says Matt Helmbold, the Director of Transportation for Gates-Chili. The district is densely populated, most of the routes are right around 30 miles. The district continues to use diesel buses for out of district transportation, field trips and sporting events.
Helmbold says they’ve learned over the last few winters some tricks to optimizing the battery life on the electric fleet, “we have the program set to charge the buses to 90% and then they shut off, at about 3 in the morning, the computer turns them on to finish the last 10% and by doing that, the batteries are warm and ready to go when they leave and the drivers are able to have heat and everything they need to pick up kids safely,” he explains.
Jennifer Lewke (News10NBC): “How far do the buses go on a charge normally and then during the winter?”
Matt Helmbold: “We tell our drivers one mile per percent for the summer and winter, that way we never have any issue but we do lose some mileage in the winter months, it depends, every driver, just like you would in your car, the more heat you turn on, the more it changes.”
The other big question of course, is cost. Electric buses are double the price of diesel buses but what about the energy that fuels them?
Jennifer Lewke: “Is there now a way to determine how much I’m paying as a taxpayer here to power these buses compared to diesel?”
Matt Helmbod: “We track diesel and electric, that’s something that we do, we track how much it costs per mile, we monitor that, we track how much the bus costs, compare that. So, yea, we are always monitoring that.”
Jennifer Lewke: “…and how does it compare?”
Matt Helmbod: “Um, so right now NYSERDA and RG&E have been working very well with us, they’re working to make sure that we get grants and rebates to make sure that all the bill do compare to the same as diesel and October was their deadline for their new plan and they’re working to implement that for us as well.”
Jennifer Lewke: “So, when you say new plan, does that just mean what the best time to charge is for rates? Or what does that mean?”
Matt Helmbod: “It’s where to put us, we’re not an industrial plant so, where to put us on a rate is really what it was.”
Helmbod was not able to provide the actual rates or data that shows the comparison but says that state grants have off-set the cost of the electricity.
Of the more than 700 school districts in the state, 450 of them have begun “fleet electrification plans” according to NYSERDA, to assess electrical infrastructure needs. A spokesman for NYSERDA says 75% of districts have at least enough power right now, for 10 electric buses but will need greater capacity for a full fleet transition.
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