Title
Approval of Services Agreement No. AGR20-912 with SmartPhone Meter Reading, L.L.C. in the amount of $52,439.20, plus Applicable Gross Receipts Tax, for the Purpose of Smart Phone Meter Reading System (SPMRS) Agreement
Recommended Action
I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve Services Agreement No. AGR20-912 with SmartPhone Meter Reading, L.L.C. in the amount of $52,439.20 and a contingency in the amount of $10,488.00 for a total of $62,927.20 plus applicable gross receipts tax, for the purpose of purchasing and installing a smart phone meter reading system.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Board approve as presented.
Body
The existing meter reading system has been in use since the County purchased the system 20 years ago. The field devices used by our meter reading team are no longer officially supported by SmartPhone Meter Reading (formerly Datamatic) due to their age and obsolescence. SmartPhone Meter Reading has to date been able to repair our field devices using older devices returned to them after other system users have switched to newer equipment over the years. SmartPhone Meter Reading has told us that they now have no more field devices on the shelf for which to scavenge for spare parts to repair our devices. This contract will replace our old field devices with new smart phone application software capable of replacing the old devices. This contract will also provide for SmartPhone Meter Reading to assist us with the transition from the old system to the new system with any programming to enable our established meter reading routes and data download systems to continue functioning properly. The data will be housed in cloud storage maintained by SmartPhone Meter Reading and available to DPU users through the internet. The smart phone equipment and service provider will be established through the County IM department similar to other County/DPU smart phone users.
SmartPhone Meter Reading has been operating with DPU based on an old contract in effect for many years that has been informally rolled over from one year into the following year. This contract will establish a new formal 7-year contract with SmartPhone Meter Reading compatible with the new MUNIS system. The planned budget covers four phones for the first year and then the next six years the subscription is reduced to two phones per year in anticipation of AMI coming on-line.
This transition was originally planned a couple of years ago but was placed on hold when the AMI project started to become a reality and the initial thinking was that there would be no opt-out provision. Now that AMI is scheduled to be implemented and now that the opt-out policy has been revised to allow opt-outs and because of the continued ageing of the existing system's equipment we feel the time is appropriate for the transition to the new modern meter reading system. Some new benefits of the new system are expected to be: 1) Meter reads will become immediately available anyone in DPU with the appropriate passwords - especially meter reading & billing staff, and 2) A photo of the meter read can be stored in the cloud along with the meter read data - this should eliminate the need for a separate field trip for meter re-reads.
Alternatives
Continue to use the existing equipment and software system until any one of the individual components fail, at which time replacement then becomes necessary.
Fiscal and Staff Impact
Some installation and transition costs will occur. Annual costs for the new system are compatible with the annual costs for the existing system. Funds are available in the FY 2020 budget to cover these proposed expenses.
Attachments
A - AGR20-912