Council approves final Schneider Electric pay request after meter replacement project; city reports $1.24M savings

The Mount Pleasant City Council approved the final pay request (No. 9) to Schneider Electric for the city’s meter‑replacement program at its Nov. 4 meeting.

City staff reported the meter program originally had a budget of $6,000,000. The city opted to purchase meters directly from the manufacturer, which staff said saved roughly $1 million compared with prior arrangements. The total project cost with all elements completed is reported as $4,755,803; staff listed cumulative savings of $1,244,197. Staff told council the final Schneider Electric pay request is $362,574.41 after the contractor subtracted approximately $100,651 from the contract to account for about 150 difficult meters the city decided to handle internally (staff estimated roughly 110 of those remain to be completed).

Staff described operational benefits of the new meters and consumer tools, including a mobile app that allows residents to track usage and detect leaks. The finance/utility presenter said the app materially helped identify an individual leak that led to a repair and billing adjustment. The presenter said meter failures (chip failures during COVID) left roughly 30% of the meters nonfunctional before the replacement program.

A council member moved and the council approved the pay request by voice vote; the mayor announced the vote as unanimous. Council members also approved the remainder of the consent agenda (excluding the removed item) in the earlier consent‑agenda vote.

Details presented during the meeting: initial budget $6,000,000; project total $4,755,803; contractor final pay request $362,574.41; contractor reduction $100,651 for difficult meters; estimated remaining difficult meters ~110; reported total savings $1,244,197.

Follow up: staff noted remaining difficult meters will be handled by city crews over time; the council did not alter contract terms at the meeting.