California School District Expands CNG Refueling Infrastructure

Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) in California has begun Kern Phase 2 of a CNG expansion that is being funded by $1.75 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the California Energy Commission.

This next phase will include an additional compressor, storage tanks, another fast-fill dispenser, eight new time-fill hoses, and a portable CNG refueling trailer. With their portable refueler, they will be able to station it out at school district sites to fill their buses. This will allow districts that would like to add CNG buses to their fleets but they are too far away from the facility to transition to CNG. The expansion is scheduled to be completed by February 2017.

KCSOS says sending students to school in buses that run cleaner and use less expensive fuel not only improves regional air quality, it puts the savings back into the classroom and helps school financial officials breathe a little easier as well.

The KCSOS office began transitioning its school bus fleet to CNG in 1999, and has taken advantage of grant opportunities to grow its fleet of 60 CNG buses and a fueling station. For phase one of its CNG expansion effort, completed in December 2015, KCSOS received $2 million in grants from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and the Rose Foundation. The phase one expansion included adding two new compressors, fast-fill CNG dispensers, shade canopies with LED lighting, and 46 time-fill hoses. KCSOS also operates a public CNG refueling station at its maintenance facility—one of only two public CNG stations in the entire Bakersfield area.