CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
title
Approve the award of Cooperative Procurement 24-246, Electric Utility Meters, to Wesco for an amount not to exceed $654,000
body
DEPARTMENT: Electric Utility
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Groth, Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
The Naperville Electric Utility (Utility) has deployed smart meters to all customers since 2011. There are approximately 63,000 electric meters throughout the Utility’s system. The meters are installed in residential and commercial locations to record electric consumption for the utility billing process.
In addition to providing billing data, the smart meters provide usage data to the “Empower” customer portal allowing residents to make informed changes to their energy consumption patterns. The meters also provide the data and outage reporting capabilities leveraged in the utility’s outage management system (OMS) to improve outage response. Additionally, the meters provide near real time data to the utility for its conservation voltage reduction (CVR) program which actively reduces energy use for all its customers by optimizing the system voltage at the substation level.
The existing REX2 electric meters have reached the end of their operational life and are no longer supported by the vendor (Honeywell). Replacing the meters is a high priority for the Utility as meter failures are projected to increase in the upcoming years which will negatively impact the reliability and accuracy of the data utilized in OMS, the CVR program, customer portal, and the Utility’ ability to bill customers accurately.
DISCUSSION:
Utility staff have specified the replacement of the REX2 meters with the REXU meters which will provide the same functionality as the existing meters. The REXU meters are also capable of leveraging Honeywell’s next generation AMI infrastructure which improves the data and outage reporting capabilities leveraged in the Utility’s OMS.
The Utility has implemented a meter replacement program to change out 60,000 meters over the next 15 years. The Utility intends to replace 4,000 meters in 2025.
Staff has identified an approved cooperative contract, Sourcewell Cooperative Contract #091422WES through Wesco, for the procurement of the Honeywell meters. Due to supply chain issues, lead times have increased to 50 weeks to acquire new electric meters. The meters are expected to be delivered by October 1, 2025.
FISCAL IMPACT:
CIP#: EU080
Electric utility meters are expensed to the Infrastructure account listed below. These meters are being purchased as a part of EU080 and will not be received until 2025 due to increased lead times. While the 2025 budget is still being reviewed, the Electric Utility included $1,950,000 for EU080 in their proposed budget. The requested award is within the amount proposed for this expense and staff will ensure this project has a budget sufficient to cover these expenses in 2025.
|
Account Number |
Fund Description |
Total Budget Amount |
|
40251300-551502 |
Electric Utility Fund |
TBD |