On Oct. 27, 2025, the Denton Public Utility Board recommended adoption of an ordinance to award a contract to Acceleron Software for a prepaid utility billing platform, approving a not-to-exceed amount of $15,460,605.23 and a contract term through September 2038. The board approved the recommendation by unanimous voice vote.

Krista Foster, customer service manager for the City of Denton, told the board the city introduced prepaid utilities in October 2018 and that the program gives customers “daily cost and usage information so they can better plan their utility expenses.” Foster said the platform reduces arrears, eliminates deposits and late or interruption fees for enrolled customers, offers alert options and includes a debt-recovery feature that helps customers keep service while catching up on past-due balances.

Foster recommended awarding the contract to Acceleron in a structure that the city described as a three-year initial term with ten one-year renewal options and a not-to-exceed total based on projected uptake. “Our recommendation is just to award the contract with Acceleron through, September 2038 in the not to exceed amount of $15,460,605.23,” Foster said.

Board members pressed staff for details about the financial assumptions informing the total. Foster said staff modeled growth using a 5% annual increase in the customer base and capped program enrollment at 15% of total meters. She told the board the city currently has about 2,100 residential customers enrolled in prepaid out of roughly 81,000 total customers, a small share of the system.

Foster described the vendor fee structure as primarily tied to enrollment and usage: usage monitoring for electric customers is free, but there is a monthly enrollment fee per enrolled meter and per-incident charges for certain notifications (for example, some text or email alerts incur a per-message fee). She also said the vendor contract includes a provision allowing the contractor to request an annual price increase (the staff presentation noted allowances of up to 8% in the model), and that historically the city has not seen vendors exercise that option.

Several board members expressed concern about the long contract horizon and the not-to-exceed projection. One member said the $15.46 million figure felt large and cautioned against treating the projection as a spending target; staff replied that the number represents a funding ceiling that would only be spent if actual enrollment and usage reach those levels and that the city pays vendors only for services actually used. Laurie Huel, purchasing manager, agreed to confirm contract termination and convenience clauses in the final agreement.

Board members and staff also discussed program design and population served. Staff said the prepaid offering is residential only at present, and emphasized that the program tends to reduce calls and arrears among participating customers. Aaron Skinner, senior project manager for capital projects, and other staff answered procedural questions from the board during the discussion.

After questions and comments, a board member moved to recommend adopting the ordinance and awarding the Acceleron contract; the motion received a second and passed on a unanimous voice vote.

The board also received management memos and a brief exchange about improving review processes for memoranda after a staff member acknowledged an earlier documentation error.