Council action to award a contract to Burns & McDonnell in the amount of $60,000 to cover Annual Transmission Assessment studies for the Power & Light Department.

IPL staff recommends issuing contract to Burns & McDonnell for these services.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) requires through Transmission Planning Reliability Standard TPL-005 that an assessment of transmission facilities be completed each year. Historically and effectively these studies have been completed by Burns & McDonnell in conjunction with IPL Engineering and System Operations. Burns & McDonnell have the skill set and the specialized software to perform the required analysis.

In general, a full study is completed every other year with the between year an update of the previous full study. This is usually adequate and meets NERC requirements since IPL transmission and load patterns do not change much. For the 2022 assessment a full and complete study is required.

Previous contracts for this service were handled under the authority of the City Manager as costs were under $50,000 and did not require council action. For the 2022 assessment, additional studies and contingency analysis are required to review the impact of the proposed Northpoint development on the IPL transmission system. The full assessment and the addition of the Northpoint load causes the $60,000 not to exceed amount of the proposed contract.

IPL Engineering, System Operations, NERC staff and IPL Director have reviewed the Burns & McDonnell proposal and agree it fulfils the requirements.

The 2022 Annual transmission assessment is scheduled for completion in November of 2022.

The fiscal impact to the City is the $60,000 not to exceed amount of the contract. Funding for the transmission assessment is included in the fiscal 2023 adopted O & M budget for department 6160, under account 5226 (Professional Services), page number 190.