Keeping an Eye on


issued under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program. Those credits also bring down the cost of renewable diesel. During his session in North Carolina, Pritchard ad-


dressed concerns around electrification costs by using “funding braiding,” a neutral cost model that knits together various funding sources. “The most recent news related to tariffs may also


cause pricing challenges for certain manufacturers who are working hard to keep their pricing com- petitive,” added Zenobe’s Clancy. “However, federal programs like the EPA’s Clean School Bus program are just one source of funding, and there are many local, state and regional funding sources that our grant team has successfully supported on behalf of districts and transportation contractors.” Since fleet electrification can be a five to 15-year


process, Pritchard advised STN EXPO attendees to work closely and communicate with their vendor partners— and contractors, if applicable—on funding options.


Planning for the Future Maintaining a big-picture perspective was a com-


mon theme when discussing how transportation operations can effectively plan purchasing decisions, even in uncertain times.


Fleet Security While purchasing security is currently at question, fleet and infrastructure security concerns continue. With many reported cases of school buses being targeted for parts or materials, it is important for trans- portation operations to have security measures in place to protect their school buses. Tim Shannon said he experienced cases of catalytic


converters being stolen from Twin River Unified School District buses in California that were going to be used as scrappage to obtain funds for electric buses. It cost the district a significant amount of money to replace those buses so they could meet the funding requirement. He also noted a case of vandals breaking into buses and emptying fire extinguishers inside. That rang up a $200,000 cleaning bill. He said that cameras and motion detectors are generally the methods used to help prevent similar issues. Engineering consultant Ewan Pritchard said he is


aware of cases of cut or stolen charging cables. It’s im- portant to have a general awareness of “realistic threats rather than posing hypothetical threats,” he added. Director of Transportation Mike Bullman said the South Carolina Department of Education requires a high level of physical security, with lighting and fenc- es. “We feel that the security measures we currently have in place will support all the various fuel plat- forms,” he added.


Cybersecurity Considerations “Much like many organizations are working to con-


trol physical access to computers, all organizations are working to limit physical access to interfaces. Think of this like in Star Wars, where R2D2 was able to just plug in locally to the Death Star,” Pritchard explained. “Organizations today work to limit access to comput- ers by turning off access to USB ports so people can’t steal information or put malicious software on with a USB drive. Similarly, vehicle manufacturers and [Elec- tric Vehicle Service Equipment] manufacturers are limiting this physical access. Remote communications are now also encrypted end-to-end with more sophis- ticated authentication.” Shannon noted that as during his time at Twin


An InCharge Energy charger in operation for an on-going pilot project at an undisclosed school district.


Rivers, the IT department handled cybersecurity concerns. Since the charging infrastructure had a cellular connection as opposed to Wi-Fi, he said a cyber-attack was less of a concern. InCharge Energy stated that it achieved SOC 2 se- curity and is also OCPP 2.0.1-compliant, meaning there are features such as “secure firmware updates, cer- tificate-based authentication, encryption, and secure communication protocol.” It is also audited annually for security of IT networks and software solutions.


www.stnonline.com 39


PHOTO COURTESY OF INCHARGE ENERGY


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