HomeMy WebLinkAboutAMI Technical Specifications and Scope of Work Solicitation1.0 Minimum Qualifications
Proposers shall be in the business of Water Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI) and Water
Meters and must possess sufficient financial support, equipment, and organization to ensure that
it can satisfactorily perform the services if awarded a Contract. Proposers must demonstrate that
they, or the key staff assigned to the project, have successfully provided services with similar
magnitude to those specified in the scope of services to at least one entity similar in size and
complexity to the city of Denton or can demonstrate they have the experience with large scale
municipal clients and the managerial and financial ability to successfully perform the work.
Appendix A is our Minimum Qualification requirement. Proposers that fail to comply with all items
listed in Appendix A will be found non-responsive.
2.0 Technical Specifications/Scope of Services
2.1 Project Background
The city of Denton is the largest city in Denton County, TX. Located on the far north end of the
Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex in North Texas on Interstate 35, Denton is known for its active music
scene; attracting over 300,000 people to the city each year. The city has hot, humid summers and
few extreme weather events. Its diverse citizenry is represented by a nonpartisan city council,
and numerous county and state departments have offices in the city.
A full-service municipality, Denton, provides the highest quality of affordable services to meet the
needs of its residents. Master-planned communities and welcoming neighborhoods enhance
home values and create a sense of belonging. The community offers outstanding schools,
libraries, civic organizations, and other resources that make Denton a great place to work, live
and raise a family.
• Area in city limits (2020)
o City: 97.95 sq mi
o Land: 96.35 sq mi
o Water: 1.60 sq mi
• Estimated 2020 city Population*: 139,869
o Density 1,451.68/sq mi
o 12th-most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex
For additional information, please visit to our website: www.cityofdenton.com
2.2 Project Summary
The scope of the AMI project is limited to the city of Denton and the entire service area including
all meters as well as the entire coverage area in the supplied Map in Exhibit 4. The city currently
reads meters manually monthly. Manufacturers or Distributors of AMI Systems who are proposing
solutions in response to this Request for Proposal (RFP), shall address compatibility, integration,
and integration support between their proposed system and other city Customer Information
System (CIS) systems described in this RFP. The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor shall offer
project management support during installation, deployment, and implementation for their AMI
system and associated services and that those services and their costs should be fully described
in the response.
The city expects the AMI communications infrastructure system offered to be a flexible, scalable
foundation for AMI metering, advanced water distribution system monitoring, and smart city
applications. With this in mind, the city expects the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor to offer and
supply the most up-to-date and current hardware and software products available at the time of
delivery. Regarding the field area network, the city is interested in understanding various fixed
network options, including cellular network usage for endpoint connectivity.
As of the city’s 06/05/2024 meter census, indicated in Exhibit 1, the city has approximately 44,157
water meters in service. Concurrent to any AMI endpoint upgrades, the city intends to replace all
meters, but may adjust this after reviewing the Proposals and the results of the commercial field
survey. The city will require a 100% solid state meter proposal and will evaluate the finances
based on solid state metering. Vendors may also offer a positive displacement meter as an
alternative, but it will not be considered in the financial analysis.
The city has mostly metallic lids and will replace lids as needed. The bidder must indicate and
price in Appendix D2, the solution that is recommended for them to meet the system performance
requirements. Drilling of lids or lid replacement is acceptable depending on the bidder’s systems
needs. A lid must either be drilled or replaced as part of this RFP, if there is not an existing AMI
cut-out in the lid.
The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor is required to clearly indicate which components are included
in its response, including details of proposed subcontractor/partnerships. The AMI Proposer shall
be solely responsible for the performance of any of their subcontractors/partners, including
warranty. The city reserves the right to assess and accept individual components from a proposal
that includes multiple components. The city reserves the right to accept none of the proposed
components or to adjust the quantities and schedules associated with selecting and implementing
any component of this RFP.
The city of Denton expects to meet the following key objectives by deploying an AMI system:
• Complete AMI system coverage for all water meters and endpoints located in its
service territory as indicated in Exhibit 4. The entire Service Area in Exhibit 4 should
allow for coverage even if an endpoint is not currently located in those areas.
• The city requires AMI endpoints to be installed on all its water meters in its service
area. The system must securely and reliably collect and process hourly interval and
daily register consumption data from all water endpoints within scope of this project.
• The city intends to replace all its water meters during this installation with Solid State
metering.
• While the core AMI technology requirements include meter–to-cash initiatives, the city
also may leverage the “smart” water distribution applications and other customer
engagement initiatives in the future. The AMI System should be designed with these,
and other future uses in mind. The city is specifically interested to learn about how
your network is designed to leverage the following areas:
• Non-Revenue Water applications
• Pressure monitoring applications
• Sanitary Sewer Overflow applications
• The AMI system must be comprehensive, economically viable, resilient, secure, and
be deployed safely.
• The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor will provide a site survey of all meters prior to the
beginning of deployment to note general conditions of meter box, lids, etc. This is to
assist the city to determine the level of effort prior to replacing those meters beyond
what is scoped in Appendix D2. The site survey shall include a report that describes
the general conditions of each meter box, lids, (Including size and material), and
inventory of all the components within the meter box, including any work that would be
needed to successfully deploy the AMI system proposed in the response. A final
inventory of product mix of endpoint, meters, boxes, and lids will also be determined
after this survey. Dual point endpoints, if proposed would also be determined after
this survey.
After the site survey of all Meter/AMI installation locations, the city may add other
metering service point work performed on an as needed basis. The purpose is to
avoid change orders during the installation phases.
The city is focused on the selection of AMI Manufacturers and/or Distributors who are credible,
reliable, and possess the necessary expertise, experience, and manufacturing capability and
capacity to successfully complete this important and transformational initiative.
2.3 Project Scope and Expectations
The city plans to deploy a single AMI system to achieve 100% coverage of its water service area,
shown in Exhibit 4. “100% coverage” is expected to mean that all water endpoints can reliably
communicate and execute all of the AMI functionalities via the AMI system without manual
intervention. Currently the city reads its water meters monthly, manually (using cycles and routes).
If, upon analysis of the city’s water service area, the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor determines
that 100% coverage is not economical, the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor shall indicate in
Appendix D-2 Tab 5 AMI Assumptions & Exceptions what percentage of coverage is economical
and identify the endpoints to be excluded. The AMI Proposer shall base its pricing on the
percentage coverage it is recommending.
The AMI Proposer is expected to provide design, engineering, installation, and maintenance
services for the Headend, Field Area Network, Endpoints, water meters, and associated
equipment, and for all troubleshooting and remediation of all non-communicating water
meter/endpoint issues through Cycle/Route Acceptance. Cycle/Route Acceptance will be defined
as 98.5% of all data from water endpoints communicating through the network over a 72-hour
period (a punch list of 2% will be allowed, however final System Acceptance will not be granted
until those remaining 2% are communicating). The Network and Meter maintenance is a required
element to bid but is being considered as optional and not included in the financial analysis.
The following outlines the various AMI components and features that the AMI Manufacturer or
Distributor responding to this RFP must address:
2.3.1 Water Meters
The city currently utilizes mechanical positive displacement water meters with digital encoders
and intends to convert to solid-state meters for all meters on this project. The city will get pricing
in Appendix D2 for remote connect/disconnect devices and will deploy a limited amount
depending on budget. The financial analysis will not include a specific number of remote
connect/disconnect devices. For purposes of this solicitation, the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor
shall consider that 100% of the water meters will be replaced, but the city reserves the right to not
replace some of the commercial meters at its own discretion. It will determine this during the early
stages of the project and after the site survey results. The city has some existing new meters that
they may use instead of purchasing the new ones.
2.3.2 AMI Water Endpoints
AMI water endpoints included in the project shall be advanced, battery powered digital devices
that are enclosed in sealed, watertight and condensation proof enclosures capable of being
submerged for recording of hourly interval data, be capable of tamper detection, and support real-
time bi-directional communications between the endpoint and the Headend through a cellular or
field area fixed network. All endpoints must comply with applicable Federal Communication
Commission (FCC) licensing and communication standards as described within this RFP. The
AMI Manufacturer or Distributor must ensure the city possesses all licenses required to own and
operate the AMI System for the life of the system. The city expects to install the AMI water
endpoints on 100% of its water meters.
2.3.3 Field Area Network (FAN) or Cellular Infrastructure
The city is seeking to obtain either a Cellular Endpoint, AMI Field Area Network (FAN), or some
bidder determined combination of these two solutions. The FAN network is required to be bid as
both a turnkey Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) and as a city-maintained solution. The city reserves
the right to select either for the financial analysis depending on best fit by each individual bidder.
Under the NaaS concept, the city will pay the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor to provide the
network (private proprietary, public network, or cellular) and the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor
shall be responsible for all costs, including but not limited to site acquisition, permitting, leasing,
deploying, testing, installing, operating (including backhaul) and maintaining the network to the
agreed upon Service Level Agreements (SLA) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to be
contracted. If a pole is raised at a site to support a device, the pole height must be limited to 50
feet. The NaaS offering will also include 1 test FAN Radio Frequency (RF) device to be connected
to the Test Headend. The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor is to provide a copy of their standard
AMI Network NaaS agreement to the city as part of their response.
2.3.4 Head End System (HES)
The city desires the Headend to be provided as a turnkey System-as-a-Service (SaaS) for
deployment and integration, as well as ongoing operations and support. Under the SaaS concept
the city will pay the AMI Manufacturer or Distributor to provide hardware hosting in the cloud for:
• Production Headend
• Test Environment
• Development Environment
• Software release management
• Software patching
• Testing
• Disaster back-up and recovery
• Standard and/or custom reports to meet the agreed upon Service Level Agreements
(SLA) and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to be contracted.
The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor is to provide a copy of their standard Headend SaaS
Agreement to the city as part of their response.
2.3.5 Maintenance as a Service (MaaS)
The city requires an option for maintenance services for the entire length of product life of 20
years to be bid as part of the project. The last 5 years shall be renewed on an annual basis. The
vendor shall provide the following services: Monitor, Maintain, Field Investigate/Troubleshoot,
Replacement and Warranty management of each component of the system: meter, endpoint,
remote connect/disconnect valve, and any related components. The city requires the system to
be maintained at the 98.5% of all hourly data for the entire product lifecycle. MaaS will not be
evaluated for the financial analysis.
2.3.6 Meter Data Management System (MDMS)
The city has an existing Itron MDMS system that the selected vendor is required to create the
necessary integrations into this system.
The city is seeking to understand the bidder’s interface compatibility with the Itron MDMS solution.
2.3.7 Customer Portal
The city utilizes SilverBlaze customer portal, the interface will be driven through the Itron MDMS
solution.
2.3.8 Billing System
The city currently utilizes NorthStar Utilities Solutions for billing functions and NorthStar mCare
for water meter work order management, and asset tracking. AMI Manufacturers to this RFP who
propose an AMI System will be required to provide compatibility with this customer care and billing
system in order to enable monthly and off-cycle billing requirements. Should system change, the
city expects the AMI vendor to create the necessary interfaces, as needed. The city does require
an interface with their work order management system.
2.3.9 Contract and Statement of Work
The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor shall be the prime contractor and guarantor for all
subcontracts/partnerships (such as network or Endpoint installers) and shall provide their
proposed initial draft of contract terms and statement-of-work for the city to consider as part of
their response. The AMI Manufacturer or Distributor shall reflect all Key Performance Indicators
(KPI) and Service Level Agreements (SLA) regarding the AMI system supply and performance.
All contract documents submitted by the AMI Proposer as part of their response to this solicitation
shall be reviewed by the city and may be incorporated into any final agreement as representing
the AMI Proposer’s stated specifications and capabilities regarding the AMI products and services
being offered. All sub-vendors by the bidder must be part of the prime contractor final agreement
with the city of Denton.
2.4 Project and Bid Schedule
The AMI Proposer and its subcontractors shall adhere to the following timeline when responding
to this RFP. The activities timeline is subject to change during contract negotiations. The city is
planning a 24-month project timeline. Deployment will be required to start after December 2024
and shall last no more than 3 years.
The city foresees a staged deployment that provides the city the opportunity to integrate the new
AMI system and assess its performance and stability. This install period shall compose of 2
phases with 2 parts to each phase. Phase 1 is estimated at 4-6 months. Phase 1a: Proof of
Concept (POC) of up to 50 meters (may include a 1 week break of installation at end of Phase for
Acceptance Testing), Phase 1b: System Acceptance Testing of between 500-1000 meters (may
include a 2 week break of installation at end of Phase for Acceptance Testing and procedural
updates), and Phase 2a: Mass Deployment. Phase 2b is the system sign off to complete the
project and full acceptance. The city will work with the successful AMI Manufacturer or Distributor
to define the best strategy to deploy this early deployment network and meters/endpoints to
validate coverage, processes, performance, and functionality representing no more than 10% of
the meter population. Including the completion of the early deployment acceptance testing, the
city is targeting a total deployment period to be 24-months. The city and selected vendor will
mutually adjust this schedule during the early stages, as needed.
The city envisions the mass deployment work to be released in a methodical manner following a
cycle/route methodology with each cycle having a varying number of routes of varying meter
quantities. The city currently anticipates moving sequentially through each cycle and route before
moving to the next. During Mass Deployment, the city will release routes in a primary cycle,
however it envisions dispatching failed work and/or work in other cycle/routes as needed and
simultaneously along with the mass deployment. It is therefore necessary that at the
commencement of mass deployment, the new AMI field area network be completely deployed
and operational to cover 100% of the meter population.
Based on the high-level information regarding scope and schedule, the AMI
Manufacturer/Endpoint Installer shall provide with their response a project plan identifying key
milestones and deliverables that meets the criteria outlined.
2.4.1 List of RFP and Appendices and Exhibits
Appendix / Exhibit Title Location
AMI Technology Specifications and
Scope of Work Solicitation Main Document - RFP
Appendix A Minimum Qualifications* Attachment
Appendix B Supplier Information* Attachment
Appendix C AMI Requirements* Attachment
Appendix D-1 AMI Price Schedule Guide Attachment
Appendix D-2 AMI Price Schedule* Attachment
Exhibit 1 DEN Meter Database* Attachment
Exhibit 2 DEN Facilities Addresses* Attachment
Exhibit 3 DEN Facility Map Attachment
Exhibit 4 DEN Service Area Map Attachment
Exhibit 5 DEN Specifications Attachment
Exhibit 6 DEN Glossary Attachment
*Note: These files are in MS Excel format
2.4.2 Denton Count of Water Meters – June 5, 2024 *
*Estimated total.
3.0 Contents of the Proposal
The city deems certain documentation and information important in the determination of
responsiveness and for the purpose of evaluating proposals. Proposals should seek to avoid
information in excess of that requested, must be concise, and must specifically address the issues
of this RFP. The city prefers that the proposals be no more than 100 pages in one complete pdf
document. Information included on the Appendix Excel forms are not to be in the .pdf unless
additional space is needed, and the file is indicated in the Appendix. The proposals should be
organized, divided, and indexed into the sections indicated herein. These are not inclusive of all
the information that may be necessary to properly evaluate the proposal and meet the
requirements of the scope of work and/or specifications. Additional documents and information
should be provided as deemed appropriate by the respondent in proposal to specific requirements
stated herein or through the RFP. All excel calculations must be enabled.
3.1 Title Page
Show the RFP subject, the name of your firm, address, telephone number, name of contact
person and date.
3.2 Table of Contents
The table of contents should outline, in sequential order, the major areas of the submittal,
including enclosures. All pages should be consecutively numbered and correspond to the Table
of Contents.
3.3 Executive Summary
Each Offeror must submit an executive summary that identifies the business entity, its
background, main office(s), and office location that will service this contract. Identify the officers,
principals, supervisory staff, and key individuals who will be directly involved with the work and
their office locations. The executive summary should also summarize the key elements of the
proposal.
3.4 Experience and Qualifications
Indicate the firm’s number of years of experience in providing the professional services as it
relates the work contemplated. Provide details of past projects for agencies of similar size and
scope, including information on your firm’s ability to meet time and budget requirements. Indicate
the firm’s initiatives towards its own sustainable business practices that demonstrate a
commitment to conservation. Indicate business structure, IE: Corp., Partnership, LLC. Firm should
be registered as a legal entity in the State of Texas; Minority or Woman owned Business (if
applicable); Company address, phone number, fax number, E-Mail address, web site, contact
person(s), etc. Relative size of the firm, including management, technical and support staff;
licenses and any other pertinent information shall be submitted.
3.5 Approach to Scope of Work
Provide (within 2 pages) your understanding of the city's needs, goals and objectives as they
relate to the project, and your overall approach to accomplishing the project. Give an overview on
your proposed vision, ideas, and methodology. Describe your proposed approach to the project.
Discuss your capabilities to address all requirements as indicated in Section III – Technical
Specifications / Scope of Services.
The Proposer shall also propose a scheduling methodology (timeline) for effectively managing
and executing the work in the optimum time. The delivery time shall be stated in calendar days
from the date of city notice to proceed with delivery. Such timeline information and proposed dates
shall include, but not necessarily be limited to: delivery, installation, acceptance testing,
personnel, and other related completion dates, in accordance with the RFP specifications.
Also provide information on your firm’s current workload and how this project will fit into your
workload. Describe available facilities, technological capabilities, and other available resources
you offer for the project.
3.6 Response to Appendices
a. Appendix A – Minimum Qualifications
b. Appendix B – Supplier Information
c. Appendix C – AMI Requirements
d. Appendix D2 – Price Schedule
3.7 Ancillary Agreements
The Proposer is to attach to the Proposal any of its Ancillary Agreements that may be incorporated
into the city’s resultant Agreement such as:
• Standard AMI Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) Agreement
• Head End System-as-a-Service (SaaS) Agreement
• Maintenance as a Service (MaaS) Agreement
• Support Agreement(s)
3.8 Weighted Criteria
AMI Requirements (Appendix C) 55%
Commercial Evaluation (Appendix B) 15%
Total Project Cost (Appendix D2) 30%
TOTAL PERCENT AVAILABLE: 100%
END OF SECTION