FCPS to add eight electric buses to fleet through Dominion Energy program

Eight new electric buses will soon be joining Fairfax County Public Schools’ massive fleet of school buses, the school system announced Thursday.

FCPS will be buying the eight buses with Dominion Energy’s assistance as part of Dominion’s program to replace diesel buses across the state. Dominion will be rolling out 50 electric buses before the end of the year, and 15 other localities — including Arlington, Alexandria and Prince William Counties — will also be adding the models to their fleets.

Dominion is aiming to add another 1,500 buses to the program over the next five years, and the company’s long-term goal is to replace all of the state’s diesel buses by 2030, according to a press release.

Dominion is helping the school systems cover any extra cost the buses have in comparison to diesel models. The energy provider will also subsidize the cost of the charging infrastructure needed, according to FCPS.

Mount Vernon school board representative Karen Corbett Sanders, who currently serves as chair of the board, said in an FCPS release that the partnership with Dominion to add electric buses to FCPS’s fleet “is part of an exciting movement towards sustainability programs for our facilities and transportation that we continue to explore.”

“As the largest school division in Virginia, we feel it is critical for us to set an example for our students and our community that we are exploring and implementing as many solutions as possible to combat climate change,” said Corbett Sanders.

FCPS currently has around 1,625 buses in its fleet. Only the New York City Department of Education (9,035), Clark County School District in Las Vegas (1,920), Los Angeles Unified School District (1,920), Gwinnett County Public Schools (1,900) and School District of Philadelphia (1,627) had more school buses in their fleets in 2019, according to School Bus Fleet magazine. In 2019, FCPS transported 141,880 student daily, second only to New York City.