Proterra has announced the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC), operator of DART transit services, as its first customer to operate Proterra’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. The company says that Valence provides a comprehensive suite of solutions to commercial electric vehicle fleet operators, including tools for data analytics and reporting, vehicle and charger diagnostics, as well as 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, the company says. Proterra says its Valence team works with customers to understand operational requirements and electricity rates in order to design optimized charging strategies that best serve the customer’s 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, Proterra says 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.

In addition to integrating Valence into the agency’s EV fleet, DTC also recently received six new 35-ft. Proterra ZX5 battery-electric buses, with another six buses expected to arrive soon.