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Item No. 7N Meeting Date: August 14, 2006 Type of Business: CB WK: Work Session; PH: Public Hearing; CA: Consent Agenda; CB: Council Business City Administrator Review _______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Mike Schnur, Lead Utility Worker Item Title/Subject: Resolution 6895 Approving a Contract for the SCADA (Supervisory, Control, and Data Acquisition) System Upgrade No. 2 Background: SCADA (Supervisory, Control, and Data Acquisition) system upgrade. This computer system is the control panel for operating the City's utility systems. It was originally installed in 1989, and upgraded in 1998. This system consists of a computer hardware, software, and communication devices to control the functions of the City’s water and sanitary sewer infrastructure systems. The SCADA System monitors and controls the City’s water storage capacity, treatment plant operations, all wells and boosters pumps, and sanitary sewer lift stations. There are a total of ten sites where communication is needed to operate the system. Five sites are external sites, located away from the City Hall and Public Works building facilities area, and five are internal sites located within this area. The current way for the SCADA system to communicate back and forth from the five external, and five internal sites, is by dedicated communication (telephone) lines. The five internal sites use City owned and maintained communication lines, while Qwest provides the five external communication lines. These dedicated Quest communication lines currently cost the City $839.86 per month to operate, or $10,078.32 annually. Discussion: The current problem the City is experiencing with this communication system is a random total loss of communication to Treatment plant no. 1, which is a 2.8 million gallon capacity plant, loss of communication to the booster station, the City’s two million gallon in ground storage tank, and communication loss to Well 1. It should be noted that staff cannot start and stop these wells through the SCADA computer without communication. Staff can however start and stop these wells manually, but that would require someone to be onsite 24 hours a day, and that would cost the City between $513.36 – $581.86 a day in overtime per person, during the summer months. If the staff did not work the overtime, and stuck to the peak control energy saving plan, the City’s maximum daily pumping would be 3,060,000 gallons, with no ground reservoir back-up.