Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC), operator of DART transit services, has signed on as the first customer to use Proterra Inc.’s new fully integrated fleet and energy management software platform, Valence.
Valence is a cloud-based, software-as-a-service platform designed to optimize commercial electric vehicle fleet deployments. Valence provides a suite of solutions to commercial electric vehicle fleet operators, including tools for data analytics and reporting, vehicle and charger diagnostics, charger optimization and energy management.
Through its smart energy management capabilities, Valence is designed to improve the total cost of ownership for electric vehicle fleet operators by optimizing costs associated with EV charging. Proterra’s Valence team works with customers to understand operational requirements and electricity rates in order to design optimized charging strategies that best serve customer needs.
A key strategy is demand charge reduction, which is implemented in Valence by minimizing EV charging during peak electricity usage periods. Within the first month of utilizing Valence, DTC was able to save 23.8% on its average price of fuel, based on the specific electricity rate structure determined by DTC’s electric utility, the companies say.
“DTC is delighted to see how much our agency was able to save in operational costs by using Valence,” says DTC CEO John Sisson. “We will continue to embrace advanced technology that will take our agency to the next level of vehicle transportation.”
In addition to integrating Valence into the agency’s EV fleet, DTC also recently received six new 35-foot Proterra ZX5 battery-electric buses, with another six buses expected to arrive soon.