The California Energy Commission awarded the money as part of its effort to cut climate-harming emissions.
Storer plans to place the chargers by summer 2025 at its headquarters near Dakota Avenue and a second bus yard in the Beard Industrial District. School districts in Stanislaus County will contract to use them as they shift away from diesel vehicles.
These chargers will have an added feature, the ability to store power and feed it back into the grid when the buses are not in use. Peak demand for the Modesto Irrigation District and other electricity suppliers is mainly during the summer school break.
The commission will evaluate how this "bi-directional" technology performs for Storer and could spread it to more counties in the future.
ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2035
"We will move with the times and do our part to help find solutions, like we always have," said Donald Storer, president and CEO, in a Jan. 9 news release.
He is the grandson of Walter and Gladys Storer, who launched the business in 1952. They started out by transporting physically disabled children as part of the county's special-education program.
Storer has since become one of California's largest bus companies, employing 1,040 people. It has contracts to operate fleets for several cities and school districts. It offers charter buses around the state and has a San Francisco branch that provides visitor tours and employee shuttles.
COVID-19 shut down most leisure travel in 2020. Storer responded by converting some of its vehicles into mobile testing and vaccine clinics, dubbed BusTest Express. This is now a permanent service, bringing basic health care to many locales.
MODESTO DISTRICT HAS OWN CHARGERS
The county's largest district, Modesto City Schools, got its own state grant for electric buses in 2022. They make up about half the fleet and charge up at the Woodland Avenue maintenance yard.
The district does not yet have funding for more bus conversions, said an email from Tim Zearley, associate superintendent of business services. It does have $3.9 million from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to start installing chargers at high schools.
Zearley said these chargers also can be used by electric buses from other districts when they visit Modesto for sports and other events.
©2024 The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
