The First-of-its-Kind 20-Year Charging-as-a-Service Agreement Aims to Power 46 Electric Buses Serving Residents, Businesses and Visitors to the Region
[Anaheim, Calif., September 22, 2020] — Continuing down its path towards becoming California’s first all-electric bus fleet, the Anaheim Transportation Network (ATN) has selected AMPLY Power to manage all aspects of charging for its 46 electric buses servicing the city of Anaheim, California and surrounding communities. The production scale, 20-year contract is the first of its kind and largest Fleet Charge Management Services (CMS) agreement to date, which covers the management of ATN’s charging operations from system design, installation, equipment purchase, operations and maintenance for a fixed price per kWh consumed. The model, based on the Power Purchase Agreement that popularized solar energy, ensures mission critical vehicles are charged and ready for use every day. This agreement includes the construction of a 545kW solar canopy providing 25 percent of the total expected energy consumption. ATN estimates $4.8M of fuel savings over 20 years compared to liquid natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG). In addition to serving riders in and around Anaheim and surrounding communities ATN connects riders to regional attractions such as The Disneyland Resort®, Knott’s Berry Farm, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Stadium, Honda Center and other large regional employment centers.
This project marks a significant step for our community by working towards our 100 percent electric bus fleet,” said Diana Kotler, Executive Director at Anaheim Transportation Network. “Collaborating with AMPLY Power helps ensure our electric transit operations run smoothly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. We look forward to the success of this project, growing our electrification program exponentially.”
With the agreement, AMPLY manages the charging system, networking operations and new infrastructure of chargers and solar panels. AMPLY’s sophisticated charge automation software can flatten the peak electrical demands below 2 MW and reduce utility service upgrade requirements for ATN, as well as minimize any electric grid impact for Anaheim Public Utilities. Peak load at the site would traditionally be nearly 5 MW without charge management. Optimizing the charging for ATN allows buses to achieve 99.99 percent operational availability at the lowest peak energy demand by reducing time-of-use (TOU) energy and demand costs.
The Phase One ATN Claudina Site project will be outfitted with 46 electric bus charging stations and a solar canopy covering the entire bus charging area. AMPLY selected REC Solar for installing the solar panels. Subsequent phases will include a second new facility handling maintenance and bus-washing, as well as growing the fleet to include more electric buses and chargers. Both brand-new sites will operate 100 percent electric buses on their first day in service.
For customers like ATN, AMPLY Power installs the charging equipment, charge management software (“CMS”) and automation, and ongoing charging operations. The deployment comes with a savings guarantee and service level commitment that every bus charges on a scheduled shift to ensure a 99.99 percent uptime. AMPLY’s platform proactively monitors charging performance 24/7, to identify, triage, and resolve real-time issues to ensure efficiency and delivery. The net outcome is that customers like ATN have the confidence all buses will be charged and ready to roll every morning.
Our overall commitment to ATN is to provide a worry free experience surrounding the bus fleet’s charging infrastructure needs,” said Vic Shao, CEO of AMPLY. “Ongoing managed charging services, instead of an upfront hardware purchase, allows ATN to focus its attention on serving ridership without the stress of charging operations.”
Through a service offering with fixed price metered by utilization, fleet customers like ATN can draw a direct economic comparison to dispensing fossil fuel without upfront capital costs and operational uncertainty. The greater Anaheim, Los Angeles and Long Beach metropolitan areas rank the highest of 25 cities studied in the amount of potential savings city bus fleets could gain from electrification programs, with or without managed charging. In its most recent whitepaper, AMPLY estimated more than 50 percent fuel savings on electricity compared to diesel.
The new contract with Anaheim is the latest in a series of partnerships AMPLY has signed with California transit agencies, including Tri Delta Transit and SolTrans. These agencies and other fleets see AMPLY as a key partner to decarbonize fleet operations through simple, reliable, and cost-effective electric refueling.
For more information, please visit www.amplypower.com.
Featured Images, courtesy of AMPLY Power