Bear Valley Unified School District’s Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Station Installation Project

The Bear Valley Unified School District’s bus fleet was travelling 34 miles each way to fuel their natural gas bus fleet, which was not cost effective. Grants from the California Energy Commission and other agencies allowed Bear Valley Unified School District to construct a compressed natural gas fueling station at its transportation facility. The construction of the fueling station was completed in October 2013. Construction was completed through a single source contract with Siemens Industries and engineered by Allsup Corporation. The station was built with eight fueling posts, which allows the school district to fuel their five compressed natural gas school buses and anticipate the growth of their compressed natural gas bus fleet. Growth of the compressed natural gas fleet will be dependent on available grants.

Since the completion of this compressed natural gas fueling station, Bear Valley Unified School District has seen a substantial reduction in the use of diesel fuel. It has also enabled the district to use compressed natural gas school buses on field trips, furthering the reduction of the use of diesel fuel. Students and parents of the school district are pleased with the grants received from the California Energy Commission, which enables the school district to move forward with a cleaner, safer school bus fleet.

Bear Valley Unified School District would like to move forward in replacing their remaining 14 diesel school buses with compressed natural gas buses and becoming a public compressed natural gas fueling station. Due to the isolated area in which the school district is located, users of compressed natural gas and the entire mountain community would benefit from a public station.