Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), in Maryland, is expanding its partnership with a company electrifying its bus fleet to use the vehicles as a distributed energy resource on the PJM wholesale electricity market, DER software provider Voltus announced on Wednesday.

MCPS and Highland Electric Fleets entered into a contract last year to electrify the county’s 326 diesel school buses. Voltus said its software will allow the buses to provide wholesale synchronized reserves, improving grid stability and increasing the school system’s cost savings.

“By connecting Highland’s customers to electricity markets that value them, Voltus is unlocking the power of electric vehicle fleets,” said Dana Guernsey, Voltus’ chief product officer. “We’re thrilled to demonstrate the value that electric school buses can provide to support grid reliability. … We aim to help Highland accelerate the transition to 100% electric school buses by layering on ancillary services and other value streams, which make adopting electric school buses the profitable choice.”

The company says it has a 2,600-MW portfolio across all nine U.S. and Canadian wholesale power markets. The resources include small-scale residential clients to major manufacturers and data centers.

Under the $1,312,500 four-year contract Highland and MCPS entered last year, Highland will provide the school buses, install charging infrastructure, assist in training drivers and mechanics, and pay for the electricity, maintenance and repair costs. (See Schools’ ‘Budget Neutral’ Bus Deal Could Accelerate BEB Growth.)

“Partnering with Voltus allows us to offer another value stream to school districts, further lowering the cost of upgrading to electric and also supporting increased renewable energy penetration by making the bus batteries available to utilities and wholesale electricity markets when they’re not being used to transport students,” said Ben Schutzman, vice president of fleet operations at Highland.