Background: Vehicles in heavy use areas of the country and fleets offer some of the best opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollution emissions by converting to electricity. Pepco MD is constructing and installing charging infrastructure for vehicles, including electric taxis, rideshare vehicles, buses, and others across the Pepco MD service territory. Many of these vehicles, for example, operate in service areas that have historically been impacted by poor air quality, contributing to public health and related issues.
Action: Pepco continues to consider the elements of designing programs and offerings best suited for the medium duty, heavy duty, and fleet market segments. To date, the Pepco team has been actively involved in planning discussions with both Prince George’s and Montgomery County Schools in support of the deployment of charging infrastructure for electric school bus fleets and associated vehicles.
In Pepco’s MD jurisdiction, the Company is working with Montgomery County Public Schools to deploy 335 electric school buses by 2025, beginning with an initial deployment of 25 electric school buses in July 2021. In addition to working with Montgomery County Public Schools, Pepco is also working with Prince George’s County Transit to deploy 4 electric buses at its transit facility. Both the transit buses and the charging equipment have been delivered to the County’s transit facility, with the buses planning to be operational by the end of 2021.
Greenhouse Gas Impact: Replacing a typical school bus with an electric model will reduce annual CO2 emissions by more than 16,000 pounds per year, and replacing a transit bus with an electric model will reduce annual CO2 emissions by more than 64,000 pounds per year. A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that transitioning to clean vehicles and clean fuels in the state of Maryland would produce net benefits of more than $39 billion, in part due to reductions in nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions and the associated improvements in public health.