The City of Sugar Land monitors and controls a significant number of their existing water and wastewater facilities through a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The current SCADA system is in place for the surface water treatment plant, each of the six (6) ground water plants, both wastewater treatment plants, 28 wastewater lift stations, and two raw water pump stations.
The SCADA system allows staff to remotely monitor system performance and receive alarms for any abnormalities or mechanical failures. In addition to monitoring, the SCADA system also allows licensed operators to remotely control certain aspects of water and wastewater operations. The accurate and reliable performance of the SCADA system is critical to the City’s continued success in providing high quality water to our citizen as well as protecting the environment.
On December 12, 2017, the City will annex the Greatwood and New Territory subdivisions. This annexation includes the ownership and operations of a number of water and wastewater facilities. In providing the same level of service to the citizens in these areas, the City has been working with Prime Controls to develop a project expanding SCADA coverage beyond our current boundary and to the three (3) water facilities in New Territory as well as the two (2) water facilities in Greatwood. Currently, these facilities have an alarming system in place, but no ability to remotely monitor plant performance or to remotely control the system.
SCADA system design is a professional service that required experience with the current system. Our system is specific to our unique needs and design standards. These requirements include a consistent and robust security strategy aimed at protecting the facility's from cyber-attacks. The utilization of Prime Controls for this project will significantly reduce time, energy and resources from City staff on educating another consultant and will allow progression and implementation of the improvements to be much faster along with maintaining the integrity and security of our system.
Prime Controls has a long history with the City’s SCADA system. Prime was involved in the initial design of the SCADA system and has assisted the City in the continued SCADA expansion over the years. Prime is uniquely qualified to complete this work. In the past, the City has attempted to involve outside programmers with SCADA upgrades and has had very poor success. Public Works staff and Prime Controls have also coordinated with the City’s IT department to secure the information traveling through the SCADA system. SCADA system security is of the upmost importance and every opportunity is taken to protect these systems. IT staff is confident the current system is secure and the proposed system has been designed to mirror our current security measures.
City Purchasing Policy PU-109 outlines the procurement requirements for Professional Services Contracts. Section C.3 Exceptions, outlines the process for selection when the traditional RFQ is not in the City’s best interest. As detailed in the previous paragraphs, Prime Control’s ability to complete this project efficiently while maintaining the security integrity we require makes their involvement critical to the project’s success and is why Prime Controls was selected under this exemption.
The City has worked directly with Prime Controls to develop the scope and fee for this project. The scope mirrors the SCADA system services currently available at water plants within the City’s water system. The fee is based on a labor and materials schedule outline in the General Services Agreement (GSA) currently in place between the City and Prime Controls. This GSA details labor rates for all staff assigned to the project. The GSA also requires the City to pay Prime actual costs plus 15% for all materials. This scope and fee are within the anticipated budget for FY18 and in line with all current costing plans.
The proposed project is a turnkey SCADA implementation. Prime will be responsible for design, construction, installation, programming and warranty of the SCADA expansion. The proposed contract scope includes:
- Design of all new SCADA components
- Installation of all new control panels and new control units
- Any site wiring to specific plant components (chemical analyzers, remote level sensors etc.)
- Programming necessary to incorporate the new equipment into the City’s existing SCADA system
- Demolition of any unused existing alarm system
The budget for this project is included in the FY18 CIP under project WA1805. The majority of ongoing software license fees are already included in the City’s current SCADA system. There are some small communications charges for the Windstream DSL modem and line. Additional communication charges are included in the FY18 operating budget.
The Public Works Department recommends approval of a Professional Services Contract between the City and Prime Controls for the SCADA Instrumentation and Controls Work for New Territory and Greatwood Water Plants and Water Well in the amount of amount of $344,000.00.