The Moreno Valley Unified School District held a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Tuesday, November 29 to celebrate the arrival of thirty-eight buses and the completion of charging infrastructure.
The Moreno Valley Unified School District will be operating the largest electric school bus fleet in the State once they receive delivery of their final eight buses. The district began the school year with eighteen electric buses that arrived in July 2022, with an additional twenty being delivered over the past few months, completing its initial goal of thirty-eight electric buses to serve its students.
“We took a ride on our new electric buses when they arrived to have a first-hand experience on how it all works,” said School Board President Cleveland Johnson. “We are proud to be able to offer such a wonderful experience for our students and our community.”
The final eight buses will be arriving throughout this school year to complete the ultimate goal of eliminating all diesel-powered school buses from their fleet.
“We are so proud of transitioning from diesel-powered school buses to clean energy sources,” said Superintendent Dr. Martinrex Kedziora. “We want the best for our students and we believe that we are heading in the right direction.”
Deploying 46 electric school buses will reduce CO2 Emissions by 600 metric tons annually. This is equivalent to removing 285,700 cars from the streets in Moreno Valley.
“Through fantastic partnerships, collaboration, and our dedicated school bus drivers, we currently transport 1,100 students in zero-emission school buses,” said Director of Transportation Jim Burleson.
The foundation and success of Moreno Valley’s electric bus project was built on their partnerships with industry leaders like InCharge, IC Bus, and US Gains. InCharge supplied and installed the charging infrastructure and software management program, ensuring consistent and responsible energy supply to fuel the fleet.
"With this transition of Moreno Valley's electric school bus fleet to electric, current and future generations of children will be able to start and end their school days in much healthier environments," said Cameron Funk, CEO of InCharge Energy. "Our partnership with MVUSD has been inspirational and a great reminder of why we do this work. We're excited to see how this project encourages other school districts to make the switch, which will help alleviate a variety of community health and social challenges."
IC Bus designed, constructed, and delivered the EV buses many Moreno Valley students are now transported in daily.
While US Gains collects energy usage data to return valuable LCFS benefits to the district, providing additional fuel savings. US Gains also monitors and maintains the onsite CNG fueling station which provides renewable natural gas to power an additional 28 Moreno Valley clean energy buses. The renewable natural gas supply originates from captured landfill gasses that also generate additional fuel credits for the district.
“U.S. Gain is proud to support Moreno Valley as they enter into this next stage of their fueling roadmap with their record-breaking fleet of EV buses,” said Scott Hanstedt, vice president of business development at U.S. Gain. “Providing support for their credit generation efforts—from registration, to reporting, and auditing—frees up their time to focus on their most important partners: their students, staff, and community. Using the funds generated from credit generation, they can reinvest it to support and help accelerate their transportation decarbonization initiatives. As their long-term partner, we are proud to help maximize their efforts.”