01-28-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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200631v1 1. Notice of Solicitation of Quotes. The City of Orono is seeking proposals for our Water Meter Replacement program. The City intends to enter into a contract with a qualified and responsible firm for these services, and accordingly is furnishing herein a set of instructions and specifications by which such quotes shall be evaluated. The intent of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to allow vendors to provide the City with the best solution given the City’s current metering configuration and requirements. The City of Orono, Minn. (“City”) is requesting proposals for replacing or upgrading the current Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) Metering system capable of meeting the current and future meter and meter reading needs of the City. The City desires to enter into an agreement with a qualified company who can demonstrate competency, quality, and experience in the installation, implementation and use of AMR systems for water and the supply of meters for measuring potable water usage. This RFP does include installation of meters. The City will be replacing nearly all of its aging residential and commercial water Meters (Approximately 1100 Meters) with new meters over a five year period (2019-2023). Besides replacing aging units, the City intends to acquire a system that will provide better customer service, greater data accuracy and reduced operational costs. Any solution proposed shall allow for future expansion possibilities. Manufacturers of systems or system integrators who are proposing solutions in response to this RFP shall address compatibility, integration, and integration support between their proposed system and other systems described in this RFP as well as whether project management support is offered as part of implementation for their AMR system. 2. Project Overview. A. Scope of Work. The City seeks to replace the existing meter system including meters with an AMR system. The City seeks to acquire systems that meet the following objectives: 1) Meter reading in the most cost-effective manner possible 2) Ability to perform advanced data anal ysis of incremental meter readings 3) Maximization of existing investments in meter reading technology 4) Support conservation monitoring and enforcement 5) Provide accurate meter readings 6) A system capable of migrating from Mobile “AMR” to Fixed Network “AMI” at some point in the future. B. Project Description. The City will be replacing its aging residential and commercial water meters with new meters. The City recognizes that an efficient and well-maintained system is essential to ensure proper collection of use charges and rate stability to users. Following contract signing, the City intends to replace all existing meters over a period of five years. The City wants to ensure that the long-term plan is efficient and provides a high level of customer service and value. The goal of the project is to replace the entire meter system with a uniform system of new, accurate water Meters and AMR technology. The City expects a solution that will result in reduced operations costs and will allow for better customer service and system operations with near real time data. While data and pragmatic use of data are key goals of the project, it will also be critical to present a complete solution for reading water meters throughout the City that provides accurate accounting of water usage with limited system maintenance and required staff time. Desired outcomes include promotion of water conservation, enhanced water resource management and improved interaction between customers and the water distribution systems that serve them. The system shall be defined as the collection of meters and collectors. It will also include software either hosted or utility managed for collecting and managing data from collectors. Also included will be meter data management (MDM) software either hosted or utility managed, for storing and analyzing meter reading and other data. Lastly it will include all other necessary hardware and software for proper system function. The City is also interested in understanding their options related to customer presentment of data through a portal and device apps (if available). While the City recognizes there will be a period of time during the transition where dual meter reading systems are required, it is the City’s desire to minimize this. No additional equipment shall be required for interim meter reading. Any solution proposed shall allow for future expansion possibilities. The desired range of services includes provision of all required equipment and software for full-scale implementation, installation of all equipment and software, system validation and cleanup, along with initial and refresher staff training. The City desires to contract with a single business entity covering the entire scope of the project under a single contracting relationship. Partial submittals will be rejected as non-compliant. The