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Falls City board recommends $231,007 SEL engineering design contract for power plant upgrades
Summary
Public Works staff described a plan to replace decade‑old electromagnetic relays and build SCADA capabilities at the power plant. The board recommended execution of a $231,007 SEL engineering agreement for design work, with later procurement and installation phases to follow.
Public Works and power plant staff presented a multi‑phase plan to modernize the plant’s control, protection and monitoring equipment and recommended the board forward an SEL (Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories) engineering services agreement to the city council.
Staff explained that the plant still uses electromagnetic relays and manual meter reading; the proposed work would replace those relays with modern SEL devices, add relay protection and automation, and build a SCADA/remote‑monitoring capability that timestamps events for troubleshooting. Staff said those changes are intended to improve reliability, reduce outage scope and provide data that helps diagnose repeating faults.
Phase 1 was presented as a design agreement budgeted at $231,007 (items 2, 3 and 4 in the proposal); phase 2 would be procurement of devices (roughly $100,000 estimated) and phase 3 would be installation. Staff said the design documents will include dozens of electrical diagrams and that some procurement will be timed to the next fiscal year to align with budgeting.
Board members asked about schedule, training and funding sources; staff said training would be provided and that some offsetting capacity‑sale revenue and internal funds were already identified to reduce near‑term budget impacts. Staff recommended proceeding with phase 1 design and returning to council for contract execution and budget appropriation for later phases.
The board voted to recommend execution of the SEL engineering services agreement and to forward the recommendation to the city council for review and approval.
