Resiliency and Electric School Buses: Creating Mobile Power Units through V2X Capability

On January 24, 2023, SAFE and the Electrification Coalition (EC) hosted a webinar on how electric school buses with vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can serve as emergency mobile power units, representing a new resource for emergency backup power for disaster response, thereby enhancing infrastructure resilience. Panelists also discussed potential additional funding sources available for school districts and emergency management personnel for this purpose.

The webinar was hosted in conjunction with the release of a SAFE-EC report, V2X Implementation Guide and Mutual Aid Agreement Template for Using Vehicle-to-Everything-Enabled Electric School Buses as Mobile Power Units to Enhance Resilience During Emergencies. This guide consists of detailed steps for emergency managers and responders and other key stakeholders, such as school districts, school facility managers, and electric utilities, to take before, during, and after an emergency to deploy bidirectionally enabled ESBs to provide emergency backup power. The guide also contains a mutual aid agreement template with specific elements that are necessary to have in place and that merit agreement by relevant parties so that ESBs can be readily deployed as mobile power units during emergencies.

To learn about SAFE-EC’s policy recommendations to advance vehicle-to-grid deployment, read our June 2022 report, Advancing Vehicle-to-Grid Technology Adoption.

Speakers: 

  • Hosted by Will Drier, Electrification Coalition
  • Manoj Karwa, BorgWarner
  • Greggory Kresge, World Resources Institute
  • Kevin Matthews, First Student
  • Moderated by Ladeene Freimuth, SAFE’s Grid Security Project

Amy Malaki

Amy Malaki is the Director of Partnerships and Policy at SkyNRG and SkyNRG Americas, pioneering global leaders in sustainable aviation fuel production and supply. Prior to SkyNRG, Amy was the Associate Director for the transportation portfolio at the ClimateWorks Foundation where she developed philanthropic investment strategies to advance a sustainable, equitable and low-carbon mobility system. She also pioneered the organization’s international aviation decarbonization strategy. Prior to that she focused on Asia business development at Better Place, a Silicon Valley electric vehicle network startup. She has a B.A. in Chinese and China studies from the University of Washington and an M.A. in international policy studies (energy and environment) from Stanford University.