Dominion (D) Starts Electric Bus Initiative To Cut Emissions

Dominion Energy (NYSE:D) moves ahead with the plan of deployment of electric school buses on the roads of Virginia. This initiative of Dominion is aimed at gradually replacing the fossil fuel-based school bus fleet with electric buses. Initially, 50 buses will be operational in 16 localities in 2020.

Benefits From the Electric School Bus

The electric school buses deployed in the roads of Virginia will help in lowering emissions, and serve as a grid resource by creating additional energy storage technology to support the company's integration of distributed renewables such as solar and wind.

The "vehicle-to-grid" technology will enable the bus batteries to store and inject energy onto the grid during periods of high demand, when the buses are not needed for transportation. In addition, operation and maintenance cost will be nearly 60% lower than the conventional fossil fuel-driven school buses.

Future Plans

Dominion has a long-term vision relating to usage of electric school buses. Post successful implementation of this first phase, the company will bring at least 1,000 additional electric school buses online, with the state’s approval, by 2025. Completion of the first two phases will provide enough clean energy to distribute power to more than 10,000 homes. In phase three of the plan, Dominion aims to replace 50% of all diesel bus in its service territories with electric buses by 2025 and 100% within 2030.

Dominion aims at cutting down carbon emissions in its power generation by 55% in 2030 and further by 80% in 2050 from 2005 levels. The company is making systematic investments to increase its clean power generation facilities.

Utilities are Focusing on Clean Energy

A gradual transition could be noticed in the Utility space as companies operating in this space are focusing to lower the usage of coal in power generation. Utilities like NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) , Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) and American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) , among others, have plans to lower emissions over the long run.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Dominion currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In the past six months, shares of Dominion have gained 7.9% compared with the industry's 7.1% growth.

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