Charlotte Water, a Department of the City of Charlotte NC, intends to advertise a Request for Proposals (RFP) to contract labor services to deploy an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system for all of its approximately 325,000 water meters (collectively, the “Project”). Charlotte Water is issuing a separate RFP for the AMI system hardware and software (the “System”), and Charlotte Water intends to engage in one contract with the successful AMI system proposer. Furthermore, Charlotte Water expects the successful labor services proposer to act as sub-contractor to the successful AMI System proposer under one contract to install the complete AMI System. This will allow Charlotte Water to evaluate Installation Companies separate from AMI systems and make selections of the system and the installer independently while still managing one contract during the implementation phase.
The basic components of the Project sought by Charlotte Water include the following:
- Installation of new meters, retrofit registers (if applicable), and AMI meter interface units (MIUs)
- Handheld devices and software necessary to program and/or initialize the MIUs and collect installation data
- The design, installation, and testing of information interfaces between the AMI system’s software components and Charlotte Water’s customer information system (CIS) and other systems, such as its field work order system
- All related documentation, including technical manuals and operating procedures
- Training of Charlotte Water’s employees in MIU installation
- Managing the inventory of AMI equipment during the course of project deployment
- Satisfactory testing of all software, hardware, and procedures prior to the deployment of the system according to the system testing and acceptance process set forth in the contract
- Coordination, scheduling, communications, and documentation of all installation services