HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Waiving the City's Purchasing Policies and Procedure Requirement for Formal Bidding for the SCADA System for Electric Services RESOLUTION NO. 22-445
RESOLUTION WAIVING THE CITY'S PURCHASING POLICIES AND PROCEDURE
REQUIREMENT FOR FORMAL BIDDING FOR THE
SCADA SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC SERVICES
FOR THE CITY OF AMES,IOWA
WHEREAS, Electric Services uses a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition(SCADA)
System to monitor status and to control power flows, electric generations, interconnections to
neighboring utilities, distribution, and transmission; and,
WHEREAS, data from the SCADA is also used as the basis for billing energy transactions;
and,
WHEREAS,the existing SCADA system was installed in 2000 and has had routine software
updates about every two years; and,
WHEREAS, the SCADA system was supplied and is supported by Open Systems
International,Inc., (OSI)from Medina, Minnesota, and the software is based on Microsoft".NET"
technology; and,
WHEREAS, advancements have continued to be made to the software to meet changing
industry standards and regulations, and the City has historically entered into a Support Services
Agreement with OSI to keep pace with those changes and to provide maintenance services at a
reasonable price; and,
WHEREAS, there are two levels of support service plan available for this software:
"Diamond"and"Gold,"and for the past six years,the Power Plant has performed a software upgrade
every two years; and,
WHEREAS,it has financially benefitted the plant to hold a higher level"Diamond"support
service plan during the years of the software upgrade (including software,project engineering and
design, and project management), and then downgrade to a"Gold" support service plan during the
off years; and,
WHEREAS, this rotation of support service plans saves the Power Plant approximately
$30,000 annually; and,
WHEREAS,on March 22,2022,the City Council awarded a contract for the support service
plan for the Power Plant SCADA system to OSI, for a term of four years and the four-year contract
provides for Diamond level support in FY 2022/23;and,
WHEREAS,in addition to obtaining the higher"Diamond"level support this year,there are
other items associated with the software upgrade that need to be performed at an additional cost;and,
WHEREAS, since the Diamond level service is already under contract for this year, this
action is to authorize the additional items only in the amount of$64,610:
1. Third-parry software patch assistance
2. Factory Acceptance Testing
3. Purchase of Security Hardware
4. OSI Travel Expenses
WHEREAS, staff requested that the City Council waive the City's Purchasing Policies
requiring formal competitive bids, and award the additional work to Open Systems International,
Inc., of Medina, Minnesota, in the amount of$64,610.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Ames, Iowa,
that the waiver of the City's Purchasing Policies and Procedure requirement for formal bidding
procedure and awarding the additional software upgrade support to Open Systems International Inc.,
from Medina, Minnesota, in the amount of$64,610 is hereby approved.
ADOPTED THIS 9t' day of August, 2022.
Rene Hall, City Clerk John A. Haila, Mayor
Introduced by: Rollins
Seconded by: Junck
Voting aye: Betcher, Corrieri, Gartin, Junck, Rollins
Voting nay: None Absent: Beatty-Hansen
Resolution declared adopted and signed by the Mayor this 9th day of August, 2022.