January 2008 Choosing environmentally-friendly transportation Randolph Eastern Schools adds Indiana’s first hybrid bus to fleet

Randolph Eastern School Corporation has made a commitment toward “going green” by adding Indiana’s first hybrid-electric school bus into their daily routes.

The idea first came about when Cathy Stephen, Superintendent, was speaking with Rob Lykins, Randolph Eastern alum and president of Productive Concepts, Inc. (PCI) in Union City, a company working with hybrid systems.

“When PCI first went into the hybrid business with Azure from Canada, they were just doing step vans. They had a big news conference and announcement,” said Stephen. “I was there and asked if they had considered school buses and said that I thought it would be a great use of a hybrid system, especially for schools in cities where they do a tremendous amount of stop and go.”

Lykins took the idea and ran with it.

Using an existing bus belonging to Randolph Eastern Schools, PCI installed a hybrid electric system that consists of an electric motor, a controller and an ultra-capacitor into the existing drive shaft.

“When the bus is operating in start/stop mode, 35 mph and slower, it is being propelled by the electric motor that we installed with a “boost” from the diesel engine when needed,” said Lykins. “Once the bus exceeds 35 mph or so, the diesel engine takes over and propels the bus. The idea is to not use the diesel engine at the start/stop” speeds in order to save fuel. Also, harmful emissions coming out of the exhaust system are reduced by the same amount of the fuel savings. In other words, if the fuel savings equals 30 percent, the emissions are reduced by 30 percent as well. This is another big reason to use hybrid technology.”

The cost of the conversion totaled $32,800 and was made possible through a grant from the Randolph County Solid Waste Management District.

On January 25, the State School Bus Committee approved an inspection of the bus and it was unveiled to the public.

“This is the right thing to do,” said Stephen. “Schools need to lead in helping our problems with the environment, with our dependence on oil and in providing safe and healthy riding conditions for our students. This system has the potential to address all of these issues.”