Title
Approval of the (REVISED) Amendment to the Software as a Service/Spectrum and Technical Support Agreement with Sensus USA, Inc., and Amendment No. 1 to Services Agreement No. AGR19-912 with Ferguson, Inc. in the amount of $175,580.00, plus applicable gross receipts tax, for the Purpose of Implementing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure Customer Portal
Recommended Action
I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve the Amendment to the Software as a Service/Spectrum and Technical Support Agreement with Sensus USA, Inc., which is Exhibit D to AGR19-912 with Ferguson, Inc., for the purpose of implementing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Customer Portal, funding for which is payable through the Ferguson agreement. I further move that the Board approve Amendment No. 1 to Services Agreement No. AGR19-912 with Ferguson, Inc. in the amount of $175,580.00, plus applicable gross receipts tax for the AMI Customer Portal. I further move that the Board forward both amendments to Council for approval and authorize the Utilities Manager to sign both amendments.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends approval as presented.
Body
This amendment was presented to the Utility Board in September. Soon after the September Utility Board meeting we received some proposed changes to the amendment from Sensus. The changes received were to incorporate the portal scope into the agreement by amending an existing exhibit in the original agreement. In addition, payment was not adequately addressed in their proposed changes. We have coordinated the suggested format changes and addressed the cost element of the portal to our satisfaction. The cost presented now is significantly more than the cost presented in September for the following reasons. The base cost of the portal for ten years and up to 1,500 annual users is $108,111.68. In addition to the base cost, an amount of $67,468.32 is added to the contract to allow for additional users in excess of the 1,500 (1,500 represents 18% of DPU customers). Staff plans to promote the use of the portal aggressively for conservation purposes and as a customer service enhancement and foresees up to 40% of our customers using the portal in any respective year. These overage costs were proposed to come from project contingency in September. For clarity and to establish spending authority, the amendment now includes costs for up to an additional 22% of customer users, in an amount not to exceed $67,468.32, which will only be paid if 1,500 users are exceeded in a respective year. All other elements of the portal are the same as presented in September as described below.
The purpose of this amendment is for the development, installation, and on-going maintenance of a customer portal for County utility users for ten years. The customer portal will allow County utility customers the ability to access their data recorded by the Sensus Advanced Metering Infrastructure for the purpose of viewing their consumption of natural gas, water and electricity, setting up customized alerts, and providing an additional communication channel to Los Alamos County Department of Public Utilities (DPU).
Customers will have access to usage data associated with their DPU account in 15 minute increments for electric consumption and 60-minute increments for gas and water consumption. Consumption data will be available in a clear easy-to-read dashboard and can be downloaded digitally for customers to track, trend and/or evaluate their consumption. The portal will have a convenient link to view and pay their utility bill. The customer portal will be accessible 24 hours per day, 365 days per year by desktop or mobile internet-based devices using a secure two-way communication between customer portal and user device.
The DPU will have the ability to include customizable administrative utility features and alerts, allowing DPU staff to add custom content, such as conservation tips, leak detection and outage management/notification. The DPU will use the availability of the near real time consumption to create new conservation measures which can now be individualized to each customer.
Alternatives
If the amendment is not approved, staff will pursue other options to provide customer access to their consumption data.
Fiscal and Staff Impact
All of the costs for the customer portal that totals to $175,580 will be paid out of the budgeted contingency approved with the award of AGR19-912 in the amount of $971,950. To date no contingency funds have been used for the project. There is a potential use of an on-call electrician that was budgeted at $199,000 for addressing any code issues with changing out electric meters. While not anticipated, should both agreements be fully expended, then $597,370 would be remaining in the project contingency budget.
Attachments
A - Amendment to Sensus Agreement and Amendment No. 1 to AGR19-912.