Back to School: PG&E and Fremont’s School Fleet Signal the Future of Power

With more than 450,000 school buses in the U.S., projects like Fremont’s hint at how fleets could become the grid’s hidden backbone.

On a quiet morning in Fremont, California, rows of bright yellow school buses hum silently in their depot — no diesel fumes, no growl of engines. But when classes end and the buses return, they won’t just be parked. Thanks to a new partnership between PG&E, The Mobility House, and Fremont Unified School District, the fleet can now plug in and send electricity back to the grid.

It’s among the most advanced vehicle-to-grid (V2G) school bus projects in the country, landing at a moment when utilities are desperate for new ways to handle rising demand, extreme weather, and the electrification wave. With cleaner rides and smarter infrastructure, the Fremont fleet offers a preview of what a greener energy future could look like.

For students, it means less diesel exhaust around schools. For the grid, it means resilience — vehicles that don’t just consume electricity but help stabilize supply. For communities, it means new jobs in manufacturing, charging infrastructure, and maintenance. Here’s how it works.

The Promise: Cleaner Rides, Smarter Grid, Healthier Kids

Replacing diesel buses means less air pollution around schools — a win for student health and climate goals. But the real breakthrough is in the batteries.

Each electric school bus can store up to 200 kWh — enough to power dozens of homes for a few hours.

When aggregated, fleets like Fremont’s become miniature power plants that can step in when demand spikes, smoothing the peaks that often drive blackouts and higher bills. Fremont’s buses are already enrolled in PG&E’s Emergency Load Reduction Program, which pays them to feed power back during crunch times.

The transition also creates new kinds of work. Electric buses need technicians trained in high-voltage systems, chargers require electricians to install and maintain them, and software platforms call for data specialists. For districts, that means opportunities not just for cleaner air, but for career pipelines in the communities they serve.

The Tradeoff: High Cost and New Complexity

This isn’t plug-and-play. PG&E had to install a 750 kVA transformer and new 2,500-amp switchgear to handle the load. Bidirectional DC fast chargers are expensive, and staff need training to manage intelligent charging.

For many districts, even with federal support through the EPA’s $5 billion Clean School Bus Program, these hurdles can feel steep. While Fremont can already monetize its fleet, most schools lack the infrastructure or utility programs to do the same. Without those, electrification is still a cost — not a revenue opportunity.

The Stakes: Grid Resilience in a New Era

According to Deloitte’s 2025 Power and Utilities Industry Outlook, rising demand from electrification, AI data centers, and reshoring industries is pushing utilities into a new era of sustained growth. Reliability will hinge on distributed energy resources — from home batteries to EV fleets.

Fremont’s project is one of the first proofs that vehicles can act as “virtual power plants,” providing resilience in ways large power stations can’t.

If replicated, thousands of school buses across the country could become part of the grid’s hidden backbone. With more than 450,000 school buses in the U.S., the potential scale is enormous.

The Bottom Line

For families, projects like Fremont’s mean cleaner air around schools and the promise of steadier bills as buses help smooth out grid demand. For utilities, they offer new ways to keep the lights on during crunch times. And for schools, electrification can turn a cost center into a potential source of revenue.

In Fremont’s case, much of the cost was covered by federal and state grants, meaning the community itself won’t see higher bills. But in other districts, where upfront investments in transformers, chargers, and software aren’t fully subsidized, utilities sometimes recover those expenses through rates. That means a portion of costs could trickle down to customers — though regulators are expected to keep them slim. Over the long run, the savings from fewer blackouts and lower peak prices should outweigh the integration costs.

Fremont’s familiar yellow buses hint at a new possibility — one where the nation’s largest form of public transit also becomes one of its most unexpected sources of power.