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BLW approves contract to accept grant funding for fault detection, isolation and restoration project
Summary
The Board of Lights and Water voted to approve a contract to accept grant funding and move forward with planning and design for a fault detection, isolation and restoration (FDIR) program, with the city to budget matching funds over the next two fiscal years and receive quarterly reimbursements.
The Board of Lights and Water voted to approve a contract to accept grant funding and begin planning and design for a fault detection, isolation and restoration program at its Oct. 6 meeting.
The request, presented by Eric (BLW staff presenter), asked the board to authorize the city to enter the contract with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority to receive grant funds the utility will draw down starting in the next budget year. “So that is all I'm coming with today is just a request to approve the actual contract,” Eric said.
The board approved the motion by voice vote. The contract will allow BLW to begin planning and design work now; the presenter said the grant-funded work will be implemented across two budget years and that the utility will provide the full match up front and receive quarterly reimbursements.
According to the presentation, BLW has piloted the system and already installed about 60 field devices. The current contract would fund another roughly 110–120 devices, which the presenter said would finish the project. The devices are automated isolation devices that communicate to locate faults and reclose or open switches to limit the size of outages. The staff presentation said yesterday’s outage showed the system’s effect: instead of roughly 500 customers losing service, an isolating action limited the outage to about 65 customers.
Staff projected the devices would reduce average outage minutes per customer by about 57% based on historical outage patterns and placement of the devices. The presenter said much of the local match is internal labor and will be budgeted as employee costs the utility carries regardless of the grant.
Board members asked questions about the reimbursement schedule and the amount of local match; staff said reimbursements will be quarterly and that the utility will budget to fund the full amount over two years and then reflect the grant revenue as reimbursements are received.
The motion to approve the contract passed by voice vote. No roll-call tally was recorded in the meeting minutes.
The board did not set an implementation date in the meeting; staff said device installation and final spending will occur after the next budget year and the following fiscal year when the grant-funded work is scheduled to be executed.
