The Mobility House: First Choice in New York Bus Fleet Charging

In the first two reference projects in New York City, the ChargePilot charging and energy management system from The Mobility House is now being deployed. Firstly, New York City Transit (NYCT), the largest public bus fleet operator in the USA, has decided to adopt it. Secondly, New York City School Bus Umbrella Services (NYCSBUS) will implement the largest V2G project for purely electric school buses in the state using ChargePilot.

Savings of half a million US dollars

Together with NYCT, The Mobility House is working to optimize charging processes in two bus depots in the boroughs of Staten Island and Queens. ChargePilot coordinates the tariff structures of local energy providers with the routes or cycles of the electric buses. The goal is to optimize charging processes, maximize vehicle uptime, and minimize electricity costs. According to a feasibility study by The Mobility House, ChargePilot can reduce the operating costs of electric buses at just one of the two depots by nearly half a million US dollars per year.

V2G and cost- and energy-optimized charging

With V2G, NYCSBUS and The Mobility House are testing an important future technology for electromobility and the energy transition in general in another project in New York City. Essentially, both partners – similar to the project with NYCT – aim to adapt the charging processes of purely electric school buses to the cycles and electricity prices to keep charging costs as low as possible. Additionally, investment costs for grid connection expansion are to be avoided or kept as low as possible.

In addition, NYCSBUS and The Mobility House are implementing bidirectional charging. By feeding energy from the electric bus batteries into the power grid at times when this energy is not needed for driving operations, additional revenue can be generated. This is because electricity is more expensive during grid bottlenecks than during times of low demand. The Mobility House estimates that with managed intelligent charging and discharging, which also contributes to grid stabilization, NYCSBUS will save between 70,000 and 160,000 US dollars annually.