P.E.I. electric school buses to be used as mobile batteries during natural disasters

Prince Edward Island is becoming the first province in the country to use its newly-electrified school bus fleet as mobile emergency batteries during natural disasters, like post-tropical storm Fiona.

Some Islanders were without power for weeks after the storm battered the province. At its peak, Fiona knocked out power for essentially every customer on P.E.I.

The province unveiled the pilot program at the North Rustico Lions Club Thursday morning. The site served as a comfort centre during the aftermath of Fiona, and will be the very first wired building to accept power from electric school buses.

“This community centre, along with countless others, was there for Islanders during the toughest times, and now North Rustico Lions Club can do even more in an emergency,” said P.E.I.’s Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Steven Myers.

“We have taken a big step in our government’s commitment to building a generation power network that will ensure essential services can continue during power outages.”

The program uses new vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, technology to pull power from the batteries on electric school buses.

Myers said this is a first in North America -- the technology itself is very new.

He said they intend to finish required upgrades to the community hall by September and, once testing has finished, roll the technology out to community centres across the island, starting as soon as this fall.

“We are very excited to be the pilot site for this initiative. Our community was hit hard by Fiona,” said Andrea Greenan, deputy mayor of North Rustico.

“As we expect more frequent and increasingly intense hurricanes in the future, we are looking forward to the ease of use the buses will provide while reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.”

Benoit Morin, the Canadian vice president of bus sales for Lion Electric Company, said they expect a pair of buses will be able to power the North Rustico Lions Club for three days.

He said the buses could be charged at off-peak times, such as overnight, to smooth the burden of high-power use, especially during a severe storm.

“Lion Electric is proud to be part of this project aimed at providing power-to-building in case of emergency,” said Morin.

P.E.I. has about 80 electric school buses in its fleet, and that number is expected to rise to more than 100 in the next year, with 125 slated to come into service over the next five years.

The electric buses are currently only used in the province’s urban centres, so in the case of a hurricane a bus would have to be brought out to rural communities, like North Rustico, which is a half hour drive from Charlottetown.

However, officials say, as the fleet expands, they’re hoping to be able to move the electric buses to more rural routes.