A pair of grants totaling $300,000 from Duke Energy Corp. will help two transit agencies in the Triangle area fund electric bus-charging stations that are being incorporated into their fleets.

"We're pleased our grants can help transit agencies in the Triangle area transition to cleaner bus fleets that help the environment," said Stephen De May, Duke Energy's North Carolina president.

Grants were awarded to:

• GoRaleigh - $200,000 to help offset the cost of installing five electric bus-charging stations. 
• GoTriangle - $100,000 to help offset the cost of installing two charging stations for two electric buses expected to arrive by the end of the year.

"We greatly appreciate Duke Energy's investment in our electric-bus efforts," says Shelley Blake Curran, GoTriangle's interim CEO and president. "As we improve and increase our services that better connect all points of the Triangle every year, we are excited to be exploring ways to better protect the environment, too."

GoTriangle operates 69 buses and averages more than 6,000 boardings a day on its routes in Wake, Durham and Orangecounties.

At GoRaleigh, the agency has committed to the purchase of five new electric buses and five charging stations. GoRaleigh is converting its diesel fleet to natural gas and electric fueled vehicles, which are cleaner and less expensive to operate during the life of the vehicles. The new electric buses are scheduled for delivery in August and September of 2020.

GoRaleigh is the city of Raleigh's public transit bus service. It operates 84 buses, serving approximately 17,000 passengers per day, and covers a territory of 144 square miles.

Since 2016, Duke Energy has expanded charging for electric vehicles and buses throughout North Carolina. The program helped fund almost 200 public electric vehicle charging stations in North Carolina. Recently, the company helped the city of Asheville with its charging infrastructure. In 2016, Duke Energy helped the city of Greensboro with transit bus charging.

The Duke Energy funding was part of a 2015 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups.

The legacy grant funding is separate from the $76 million Electric Transportation pilot being considered now by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. The current proposal builds upon lessons learned during the earlier program. It will expand municipal and school bus charging infrastructure, as well as expand residential and public charging for passenger vehicles. Read about the current proposal.

Duke Energy | duke-energy.com