CALVERTON, N.Y. — Hampton Jitney has added solar panels, battery storage and vehicle chargers to help lower energy costs. The company also plans to offer charging to other fleets while it waits for electric motorcoaches with enough range to meet its needs.
The family-owned Long Island bus company worked with Sprocket Power to install a microgrid at its Calverton facility. A microgrid is a local energy system. This one uses solar panels to make electricity, batteries to store it, and software to manage its use.
Hampton Jitney Executive Vice President Andrew Lynch said cutting the building’s energy costs was the first goal.
“Even with a high upfront cost, the modeling we did showed that the project would be a net positive for us financially,” Lynch said. “Offsetting building utility costs was the first objective, and generating and storing our own power or arbitraging with the utility gives us a lot of options.”
Managing costs
The system gives Hampton Jitney choices about when to make, store or buy electricity based on cost.
The next goal was to add charging for customers and fleets. Customers can park and charge their vehicles at the facility for up to seven days, Lynch said.
The company also plans to invite local truck companies to use its chargers as an alternative to building their own charging stations.
Lynch said electric vehicle prices will affect how long it takes the project’s savings to cover its cost. He expects prices to fall as companies make more vehicles.
Electricity bills can include more than a charge for the energy used. Utilities also may charge businesses based on how much power they use at any one time. These fees are called demand charges.
Vehicle chargers can raise those fees, even when they run only a few times a month. “A lot of what this infrastructure is for is to manage that cost, and specifically to manage the demand spikes that are associated with charging,” said Maria Fields, Sprocket Power’s CEO and co-founder.
The batteries store solar energy until it is needed. When vehicles plug in, the batteries can supply power and reduce how much the site draws from the utility.
Dennis Quinn, Sprocket Power’s co-founder, said solar panels and batteries work together to help cut costs. Software runs the system so fleet owners can focus on their businesses.
“Customers don’t want to deal with that. They want the benefit of it, but that’s not their expertise,” Quinn said. “Their expertise is running bus lines and running dealerships and running whatever commercial facilities.”
The site already has vehicle chargers, including a portable fast charger. A planned second phase would add a megawatt of fast-charging capacity to serve regional fleets, according to Sprocket Power.
Fields said the company also helps Hampton Jitney plan its spending as charging needs grow.
“Where we have come in is to help them design that system, but also to plan out their investments over time,” she said.
Still reliant on diesel coaches
Though Hampton Jitney is building this energy system, it is not ready to replace its diesel motorcoaches. The company runs service between New York City and Long Island’s North and South Forks, and Lynch said electric coaches need better batteries to handle those trips.
“I believe we will need the next breakthrough in battery technology for electric motorcoach range to be viable for us to actively replace our diesel fleet,” Lynch said.
The company needs coaches able to travel long distances in hot or cold weather while keeping
enough space for luggage.
“Five-hundred miles of range in any temperature and full luggage bays are what we would like
to see,” he said.
Lynch said new battery designs sound promising. The next step is producing them in large
numbers. He urged other bus companies to spend time planning and choose a partner with
experience.
“The planning phase is critical, and having a good partner or vendor that has experience is a
must,” he said.
Bus companies also need to check federal, state and utility programs that can help cover costs.
These programs change often. Lynch said Sprocket Power helped Hampton Jitney understand
its options.
The company also learned a lesson about backup power. Its first plan did not include the equipment needed to keep the building running during a power outage.
“One mistake we made was not initially putting in the infrastructure to allow our microgrid to function as a backup generator for the building,” Lynch said. “We are adding that now, and it allows us to skip a diesel generator.”
Photos courtesy of Sprocket Power
