Climate change is impacting the way we think about many basic services that have taken for granted for many years. Montgomery County has set aggressive goals for carbon reduction. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is striving to meet these goals by phasing out carbon fueled buses and transitioning to a carbon free bus fleet. This transition to non-fossil based fueling, requires a conversion in the fueling support infrastructure for the transit fleet. Montgomery County is taking an innovative and industry leading approach to supporting this effort.

The Montgomery County Department of General Services, Office of Energy and Sustainability is developing a microgrid at the Brookville Bus Depot that will support the electrical charging requirements of this new  fleet.  As with many transit systems, the Ride On system serves a population that does not have reliable access to personal transportation and is reliant on the transit system to travel to and from their work. Having a microgrid supporting the charging of electric buses, provides an improved confidence that during major climate events and grid outages, the electric bus fleet will continue to service their routes.

The Brookville Bus Depot Microgrid consists of:

• 2 MW of solar photovoltaic panels
• 4 MW of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
• Natural Gas generators
• Electric bus charging system (chargers, dispensers, and charge management)

The current microgrid system is designed to support up to 44 electric buses, with the ability to expand up to 70 buses. Accommodations have been made to upgrade the service when the entire transit fleet moves to electric buses.

There are three major objectives with this project:

1. Provide resilient and reliable delivery of electrical power to support the transit schedule.
2. Reduce Green House Gas emissions in support of the County’s emission goals.
3. Deliver a cost-effective solution while providing an innovative approach to managing core competencies.