Maryland Electric School Bus Pilot

Maryland’s HB 696 (2022) establishes an Electric School Bus (ESB) pilot program administered by the Public Service Commission. Under the program, a utility may apply to implement a pilot program to deploy at least 25 ESB with up to $50M in rebates available to participating school systems. Utilities may use the batteries of the ESB for Vehicle-to-Grid capabilities without additional compensation to the school system, but only at times when the school system determines that the ESB are not needed for student transport. The utility program must select participating school systems based off of locational benefits that the storage batteries of ESB may bring to the utility, as well as the health and economic effects on low-income and minority communities.