CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the award of RFP 25-068, New SCADA, DERMS, and OMS Platform Purchase, Deployment, and Integration, to Survalent for an amount not to exceed $2,250,021, plus a 3% contingency on implementation costs, and for a six-year term
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DEPARTMENT: Electric Utility
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Groth, Director
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
The Electric Utility (Utility) first implemented its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system in the early 1990s to enable real-time monitoring and control of substation assets and distribution automation (DA) switchgear. This deployment enhanced grid visibility, which improved operational efficiency and reduced outage durations. Since the initial implementation, the Utility has periodically performed software and hardware refreshes to maintain system reliability and performance, with the most recent major upgrade completed in 2020.
Currently, the Utility is performing a SCADA communications upgrade project. The goal is to modernize field hardware and transition to industry-standard communication protocols. By doing this, the field hardware systems and control room software systems will be vendor agnostic and systems can be independently upgraded. At the completion of this project, the Utility will be upgrading its SCADA system to take advantage of new technologies now available in the market.
The Utility procured its existing Geographic Information System (GIS) centric Outage Management System (OMS) in 2021. The goal of this software procurement was to improve operational efficiencies by monitoring specific metrics, dispatching Utility crews, providing greater safety for crews by tracking isolation procedures, and providing greater transparency in operations to other municipal departments. Shortly after the deployment was completed, and prior to rolling the software out to other departments, the Utility learned that the GIS foundation would need to be upgraded in the coming years, and this would render the current OMS system inoperable.
Through the deployment of the GIS-centric OMS system, the Utility was able to identify operational efficiencies, and the deployment of this software has positioned the City well for potential changes to the Call Center structure in the coming years.
The Utility is planning for the new GIS structure changes and, as part of this procurement, will be implementing a new OMS that is compliant with the required GIS data model changes. This deployment will be closely coordinated, over the next several years, with any changes to the Call Center operations and structure.
The Utility has seen a significant increase in its distributed energy resources over the last decade. Currently, Naperville has the second-highest number of electric vehicles (EVs) in Illinois, with 6,678 EVs, which has more than doubled since 2023. In addition, Naperville has 28 battery installations providing 238kW of total capacity and over 1,201 solar installations with a total installed capacity of 11,963kW across its system. Solar resources have grown exponentially over the last five years and that trend is expected to continue given recent changes to the City’s net metering policy, which has removed restrictions on the capacity of installations.
Current grid technologies are primarily equipped to manage continuous generation and one-way (to the customer) load flow. Distributed Energy Resources (DER’s) such as solar, batteries and other generation can provide challenges around hidden load, back feeds, and voltage issues. Accurate visibility into real-time grid operation is essential for safely and efficiently managing the Distribution network.
In conjunction with the SCADA system migration, the Utility is seeking to upgrade its existing Outage Management System (OMS) and deploy a Distributed Energy Management System (DERMS).
In April 2025, the Electric Utility issued RFP 25-068, New SCADA, DERMS, and OMS Platform Purchase, Deployment, and Integration, to find a suitable software solution that can address these needs and carry the Utility into the future.
DISCUSSION:
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Advertisement Date: |
04/09/2025 |
Notices Sent: |
265 |
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Opening Date: |
05/21/2025 |
Planholders: |
52 |
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Proposals Received: |
3 |
Responses were received from the following vendors:
Larsen & Toubro Limited
Open Systems International, Inc.
Survalent
A selection team comprised of staff from the Electric Utility and the Information Technology Department evaluated the responses, which were scored based upon the criteria set forth in the RFP:
1. Capability, Capacity and Qualifications of the Offeror (30%)
2. Suitability and Quality of the Software (30%)
3. Milestones and Deliverables (30%)
4. Outcomes to be Achieved (10%)
After reviewing and scoring the responses, the selection committee invited the top two vendors, Open Systems International, Inc. and Survalent, to attend interviews/conduct demonstrations. Following the completion of the interviews/demonstrations, the selection committee rescored the vendors. The vendor with the highest qualification score, Survalent, is recommended for the award. The table below provides a summary of the final qualification scores:
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Vendor |
Qualification Score |
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Survalent |
80.4 |
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Open Systems International, Inc. |
79.2 |
The City was successful in securing a Department of Energy (DoE) grant for 50% of the project cost in 2024; however, the grant was terminated by the DoE effective October 2, 2025. In its termination memo to the City, the DoE noted that the project no longer aligns with the agency’s priorities and the termination was not due to any action or inaction by the City. The scope of the project has remained the same since the grant application.
Despite the termination, the Utility recommends pursuing this project. With or without funding, the Utility needs to upgrade its current SCADA system, plan for the impacts of the required migration of its GIS data, and be prepared to manage the grid of the future, which includes directly managing local generation and storage resources while controlling load as allowed by its customers.
This project will be executed over multiple phases:
• Phase 1A will be the initial design and deployment of the base SCADA system, with training to be provided to Utility employees.
• Phase 1B will be the integration of the updated electric GIS model into the SCADA system.
• Phase 2 will be standing up the OMS platform.
• Phase 3 will be standing up the DERMS platform.
In addition to the implementation phases noted above, this procurement includes five years of ongoing support and maintenance.
It is important to note, this contract only covers the software and services and does not cover the hardware or installation of hardware that will be required. Those costs will be determined later, and a separate purchase will be made. The Utility has included all project costs in its ten-year capital plan and will include these numbers in budget projections and final budgets going forward.
The anticipated completion date of the project is December 31, 2031.
FISCAL IMPACT:
CIP #: EU092
New SCADA, DERMS, and OMS platform purchase, deployment, and integration is expensed to the Infrastructure account listed below. The expenses associated with this award will be realized between 2026 and 2031. While the 2026 budget is still being developed, the Utility included $1,430,000 in their proposed budget for expenses related to EU092. Staff will ensure sufficient funding is included in the final budget to support this award in 2026.
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Account Number |
Fund Description |
Total Proposed Budget Amount |
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40251300-551502 |
Electric Utility Fund |
$25,151,000 |