Porterville USD Pairs 763 kW Solar Microgrid With 35 EV School Bus Chargers in $13.8M EPA Project

EVs Fleet & Depot Charging Microgrids News On-Site Generation & Microgrids
Marin Holt
July 7, 2026
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5 minutes read

Solar array: 763 kW
Battery storage: 408 kW / 1,632 kWh
EV bus charger ports: 35 ports (2 bidirectional V2G)
EPA Clean School Bus award: $13.8 million

Porterville Unified School District (PUSD) in California’s Central Valley has selected ForeFront Power to build a solar-plus-storage microgrid that will power a 35-port electric school bus charging hub and let the district run on its own power when the Southern California Edison (SCE) grid goes down. ForeFront Power announced the zero-emission infrastructure project on July 7, 2026, with charge-management provider The Mobility House running the smart-charging and vehicle-to-grid software.

The system pairs a 763 kW solar array, mounted on shade structures across the district’s north and south parking lots, with a 408 kW / 1,632 kWh (four-hour) lithium-ion battery. A microgrid controller coordinates the solar, battery, and grid connection so the campus keeps power during outages or shaves peak-demand hours. Two of the 35 DC fast-charger ports are bidirectional, creating a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) setup that lets parked buses discharge energy back to the school or the local grid during high-tariff periods. The work is funded in part by a $13.8 million award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, with the nonprofit CALSTART guiding PUSD through the federal application.

Critical Perspective

Only two of the project’s 35 charging ports are bidirectional, so the vehicle-to-grid feature that headlines the announcement covers less than 6% of the hub. Pilots have repeatedly shown the hard part is not the hardware but the economics, since battery-warranty limits and thin dispatch payments have kept most school-bus two-way charging at demonstration scale. Beverly Public Schools in Massachusetts ran one of the first commercial vehicle-to-grid school buses with Highland Electric back in 2021, yet years later fleet-wide export remains rare rather than routine. If a district needs a $13.8 million federal grant to stand up 35 ports with only two that can send power back, what happens to the next district once Clean School Bus money runs dry?

Why It Matters

School bus depots are becoming one of the largest new blocks of concentrated fleet charging on distribution feeders, and left unmanaged they pile sharp demand charges onto district budgets. Putting on-site solar and a four-hour battery behind a microgrid controller lets PUSD move charging off peak grid hours, trim demand charges, and hold power at a campus that doubles as a community shelter. The bidirectional ports turn idle buses into dispatchable storage, a template other California districts drawing on the same EPA funding are positioned to copy.