Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Battery Electric Bus Yard Microgrid

Burns provides project management and technical advisory services in support of the agency’s transition to battery electric buses and the construction of a solar-powered microgrid.

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) intends to replace the agency’s 500-bus fleet with zero-emission vehicles in compliance with the State of California’s 100 percent ZEVs by 2040 target. In the process of converting to battery electric buses (BEBs), VTA anticipates the transition will achieve the agency’s ambitious 2040 sustainability goals: reducing revenue fleet energy consumption by 60 percent and lowering the agency’s greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent.

Among the first steps in VTA’s transition is the planned procurement of 35 new BEBs. To charge the new fleet, VTA plans to construct a 1.5-Megawatt (MW) rooftop solar photovoltaic array paired with a 1-MW | 4-MWh battery energy storage system at the agency’s Cerone bus yard. Scale Microgrids is implementing the distributed energy resources through a microgrid configuration, offsetting peak demand costs and providing up to 24 hours of resilient back-up power. VTA plans to deploy additional on-site power capacity as the BEB fleet expands.

Burns is supporting Mott Macdonald on VTA’s project management and technical advisory team. Areas of focus will include:

• Consulting VTA throughout the BEB procurement process
• Supporting integration of various bus yard management and charge management systems
• Reviewing microgrid construction plans and distributed energy resource design strategies
• Assisting throughout the utility interconnection process

Featured photo courtesy of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority