Zūm has deployed an all-electric fleet of school buses in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), making it the first major school district in the U.S. to transition to a 100% electrified school bus system. This first-in-the-nation electric vehicle fleet is also equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, enabling the buses to return energy to the grid at scale when not in use.
The manufacturer is deploying a fleet of 74 electric school buses in the California city, each with its own bidirectional charger, managed via an AI-enabled Virtual Power Plant (VPP). The all-EV fleet will decarbonize student transportation while sending 2.1 gigawatt-hours of energy back to the grid annually.
“Today marks an exciting milestone in student transportation,” says Ritu Narayan, founder and CEO of Zum. “By converting Oakland Unified’s school bus fleet to 100% electric, we are showing that sustainability solutions are here — and can positively impact an entire community. Electric school buses with V2G capability create cleaner transportation and send untapped energy from bus batteries back to the grid. It’s a win-win for children, families, schools and drivers.”
Student transportation is the largest mass transit system in the nation, moving 27 million students twice daily. Over 90% of the nation’s 500,000 school buses run on carbon-based fuels, releasing more than 8.4 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, exposing students and communities to harmful fumes every day. Oakland’s EV fleet will help remove 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases from the environment.
Zum’s utility partner, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), worked closely with Zum to complete the site, which involved extensive infrastructure upgrades and other equipment to power 74 bidirectional EV chargers. PG&E was able to provide 2.7 megawatts of load to Zum’s Oakland EV-ready facility in record time, allowing this project to be deployed one year ahead of schedule.
“Converting to electric transportation reduces the leading cause of emissions and has the potential to offer a flexible power supply that benefits all customers,” says Patti Poppe, CEO of PG&E. “Our partnership with Zum and Oakland Unified on its fully electric school bus fleet is a blueprint for schools across California and the nation to better serve our students, local communities and, ultimately, our planet.”
Other partners that have been critical to the electrification of the OUSD fleet include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean School Bus program, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Heavy Vehicle Incentive Program (HVIP) vouchers, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and Clean Mobility Options (CMO) programs.
Zum has set a goal of electrifying 10,000 bidirectional school buses, which will create the potential to supply 300 gigawatt-hours of energy to local power grids annually. Plans are already underway for the firm to deploy 100% electric fleets across the nation in the coming years.
