ROCHESTER, N.Y. — New York State has mandated that school districts stop buying new diesel buses by 2027 and stop using diesel buses by 2035 but many districts are grappling with the cost and infrastructure challenges of transitioning to electric buses.

As News10NBC has previously reported, the average diesel school bus costs about $130,000, the average electric school bus is upwards of $400,0000. The Gates-Chili School district was one of the first in the state to be awarded grants through NYSERDA to off-set the cost. Five of the 80 buses in its fleet are full-sized electric buses and for the most part, the drivers and students seem to enjoy them but most other districts don’t have any electric buses at this point.   

Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke spoke with AVANGRID’s Manager of Clean Energy Policy to see how it’s preparing its utilities (RG&E/NYSEG) for the task:

Christina Ficicchia, AVANGRID: “As they say in a kid world, it takes a village and in this scenario that’s also the case, it’s going to take a lot of different programs and resources and partners to help the school districts transition through.”

Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC: “What kind of infrastructure upgrades will most of these districts need?”

Christina Ficicchia: “So, it really depends on the district, it depends on where they’re located, what the existing capacity is at their location and what their transition plan is going to look like. Most of these districts are going to be able to get started today with piloting with one or two buses.”

Jennifer Lewke: “And for a full transition, do you foresee sort of like substations at each of these school districts depending on their size or what does that look like for you all and what you’ll have to do?”

Christina Ficicchia: “So, the great thing about electrification and electric vehicles is that you can charge your vehicles at different times, you can stagger your charging and it also matches really well with some intermittent renewables that we’re also putting on to the grid.  So, a lot of this charging can happen in the off peak hours and it turns out there is actually some capacity and sometimes a lot of capacity at some of those areas during the off peak or overnight hours.  So, we’ll be able to help the customers on the school district side understand when to do their charging so they can optimize not only when they’re charging and the cost value of charging that infrastructure when the capacity is available and at the same time yes, we are building more capacity, we don’t know if it’s going to look like a substation at every school district site, I think that we’re working through that.”

Jennifer Lewke: “They (school districts) are probably charging overnight to be able to be ready for morning bus runs right, so, that’s a good start at least, it’s when you’re charging in the middle of the day for those evening bus runs that may be the challenge on the grid? 

Christina Ficicchia: “Yeah, again I think that these are things we’re trying to figure out and we’re partnering with the school districts, with NYSERDA, all of the different entities to come to the solutions that we need… if they would like to do it during the day, there’s going to be an impact to the way that they charge their vehicles and their operating costs but that’s something that they’re going to need to figure out in terms of their bus routing and again we’re here to help them understand that and work with the different partners to do it.”

Jennifer Lewke: “In talking with some of the folks at Gates-Chili, they mentioned it’s been hard to really tell how much they’re spending.  It’s really easy to put the gas pump in and say I spent $400 filing this up, it’s not quite as easy to know in the moment, how much you’re spending to charge something?”

Christina Ficicchia: “Yea, that is right… we have been starting to work with Gates-Chili… I think the important thing is to get started and work with us and collaborate with us early.”

Jennifer Lewke:  “When it comes to the cost of all of this, do you all as a company and then through ratepayers, absorb that cost of expanding the network or do you charge the school district for adding the infrastructure?”

Christina Ficicchia:  “So, again, it really depends on a case-by-case basis.  It depends on what capacity is there, who else is in need of capacity, we’re also working with our state to try to figure this out, there may be changes into how and who is going to pay for what.”

Jennifer Lewke: “Do the timelines that the state laid out seem realistic to you at this point, knowing how much of the infrastructure has to be upgraded to actually handle it?”

Christina Ficicchia: “That’s really a question for school districts in the state, we are here to provide the infrastructure that they’re going to need in a timely manner, I think getting in touch with us and communicating what their plans are as soon as possible will help them make that transition.” 

Only about half of school districts in the state have applied for funding from NYSERDA to have an electrification plan conducted. NYSERDA is hoping more of them hop on board because right now, these mandates are full speed ahead. 

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