The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has been awarded a $6-million grant by the California Energy Commission to install one of the largest electric vehicle (EV) fleet charging systems in the United States that will be powered by a solar and storage microgrid.

The solar and storage microgrid paired with 104 EV chargers will support LADOT’s adoption of electric buses as the agency transitions to a fully electric fleet by 2028. LADOT selected Proterra and Apparent to install the EV-charging microgrid at the agency’s Washington Bus Yard where it will manage EV charging and overall energy use for more than 100 electric buses.

By delivering clean solar energy generated and storage capacity, the project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower LADOT’s electricity costs, and also provide emergency back-up power that will enable the agency to continue to operate in an outage.

LADOT will deploy 1.5 MW of rooftop and bus solar canopy paired with a 4.5 MWh energy storage system provided by Apparent at the Washington Bus Yard to help power five Proterra 1.5-megawatt fleet chargers with 104 remote EV charging dispensers.

The microgrid will utilize Apparent’s intelligent grid operating system (igOS) platform to integrate Proterra Energy’s charging infrastructure with energy generation to coordinate how and when the electric buses are charged with energy generated from solar, or drawn from storage or the utility. At seven-and-a-half megawatts of EV charging power, the project is one of the largest fleet charging installations in the United States.

In 2019, the City of Los Angeles established the goal for LADOT to achieve a 100% electrified bus fleet by 2028. Earlier this year, Proterra delivered its 25^th battery-electric ZX5 transit bus to support the agency’s transition to a fully electric fleet. LADOT currently operates 29 EV buses in its fleet with 30 additional zero-emission buses expected to be in operation by Summer 2022.