Council action to award a purchase order to Burns & McDonnell in the amount of $80,000.00 to cover Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Engineering Data Requests for the Power & Light Department.

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

IPL has engaged Burns & McDonnell for support services for the SPP Engineering data requests annually for over six (6) years. Each year SPP studies the power grid and requires responses from members to support engineering studies related to the SPP power grid. These studies and responses are a requirement of IPL and City Of Independence participation in the SPP energy market and the overall SPP reliability area. As the market has been evolving, more and more studies and models are required to keep pace with the changing environment of power supply and transmission grid requirements. Contract proposal calls for a not to exceed amount of $80,000.00. Contracts for the same services have been $40,000 in 2021, $55,000 in 2022 and $49,000 in 2023. The expectation is for a substantial increased need for these services for fiscal 2024.

The contract and PO with Burns & McDonnell is for engineering support services to respond to both routine SPP data requests and on demand requests. Generally planned studies and data requirements cover about 40 annual routine requests. On demand requests are becoming more frequent due to member activities to supply generation and transmission facilities to the SPP energy market. Total annual responses reach up to around 70 per year and are constant and frequent. Existing IPL engineering staff requires supplemental support in order to meet SPP deadlines for responses to these data requests. Burns and McDonnell has the skill sets and the experience to assist IPL in these data requests from SPP. Examples include maximum system fault current studies, resource adequacy submissions, several system model builds, stability studies and load shedding.

Burns & McDonnell is an approved A/E vendor and have been supplying these services to IPL for several years, have the skill sets, software, and systems in place to provide the required support efficiently and economically. IPL System Operations and T & D concur with the use of Burns & McDonnell for these services.

The requested services are to be performed and included in fiscal year 2024.

Approval of this item authorizes change orders up to ten (10) percent of the authorized amount, providing appropriations are available.

The fiscal impact to the city totals $80,000. Funding for the transmission planning support is included in the fiscal year 2023-24 adopted budget, page 231, account number 6160-5226, Engineering – Professional Services, IPL Fund 20.