UC-Irvine Campus Microgrid Powering New EV Buses added to Fleet
The University of California at Irvine (UCI) campus launched its 20-MW microgrid several years ago to provide backup and islandable power for a number of buildings and other resources on and off campus.
Now it’s being put to work powering an acceleration in the already fast-moving UCI fleet electrification program. Electric bus manufacturer PhoenixEV delivered five new 40-foot ZX5 battery-electric models to the school over this last spring term.
UCI has maintained an electric fleet since January 2018 and, since then, has added 25 battery-electric buses logging more than 1.1 million total miles and nearly 1.5 million total passengers in the past academic year, according to reports.
“PhoenixEV is proud of our partnership with UCI,” Denton Peng, CEO of the bus manufacturer, said in a statement. “UCI is a forward-thinking university dedicated to sustainable transportation for their students and community.”
The campus microgrid charges those buses and many other facilities serving close to 50,000 people. The microgrid operates within an internal utility tunnel loop connected to the local utility via an on-campus substation.
The school’s Advanced Power and Energy Program also is working with outside developers and energy producers such as SunPower, Southern California Edison and Schneider Electric on pilot projects to create residential microgrids.
Overall, the UCI campus microgrid system includes a central gas-fired plant, a 60-kW electrolyzer, thermal storage, solar rooftop photovoltaic, and battery storage.
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