EV School Buses Earn $10,000 With Bi-Directional Charging – CES 2023
January 7th, 2023 at 10:52am
Who knew you could make so much money selling electricity back to public utilities with bi-directional charging? Manoj Karwa, the VP of sales for BorgWarner EV Charging, which is part of Borg Warner, explains how it works. He also talks about the advantages of their DC fast chargers that are made in Dearborn, Michigan.
January 8th, 2023 at 10:15 pm
The bidirectional charging system is an excellent concept. My question is what will the likes of Detroit Edison pay you for that electricity? How much they pay you for each KW, will in my opinion be very little. They buy electricity from wind farm companies now for less that .05 cents.
January 8th, 2023 at 10:15 pm
The bidirectional charging system is an excellent concept. My question is what will the likes of Detroit Edison pay you for that electricity? How much they pay you for each KW, will in my opinion be very little. They buy electricity from wind farm companies now for less that .05 cents.
January 9th, 2023 at 11:04 am
I am very impressed with the monetary aspect of the bi-directional chargers, as well as the national security aspect of using the buses and fleets that are sitting idle for up to 20 hours/day as a protective cushion for the grid. With low maintenance and making $10K off the bus, it seems like a no-brainer for school districts to invest in. When he said $10K, you chimed in with, “per bus?!?”, but he didn’t really address that. Is it earning that much per bus or is that for the whole fleet, and over what duration (I would assume per year)?
There are approximately 500,000 school buses in use in the US, parked for nearly 20 hours/day, and distributed fairly evenly throughout the country; that would make quite a reserve power supply without even counting additional fleets!