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Home My WebLink About11/15/2005, C7 - PILOT PROGRAM: STREET LIGHT MONITORING SYSTEM council °� Il IS/a5 j ac en as Repom �N� C,7 CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO FROM: Jay Walter, Public Works Director 4>0 Prepared By: Dave Smith, Administrative Services Manager $f Gary Keavney, Streets Maintenance Supervisor SUBJECT: PILOT PROGRAM: STREET LIGHT MONITORING SYSTEM CAO RECOMMENDATIONS: Approve transferring$16,400 in savings from the street light electrical service boxes project to fund a pilot program for a monitoring system to assess its effectiveness in proactively replacing lights rather than waiting until they burn-out. DISCUSSION Background The City purchased the street light system from PG&E in July of 1999. Maintenance of the system was contracted out, but in July of 2003, maintenance of the system was brought in-house, under the Building Maintenance division as part of an adopted budget reduction recommendation. During the year that followed, considerable deferred maintenance of the street light system was completed, a precise inventory determined, a Pole-Contact Agreement finalized with PG&E, and a GIS application developed to manage all street lights currently owned by the City. In July of 2004, Street light maintenance was moved to the Street Maintenance division and consolidated with the existing workload of the Traffic Signal Technician. Currently there are 2075 street lights that are owned and maintained by the City. The Street Light GIS application provides an excellent tool for managing system maintenance history, however, it can not be used to accurately predict or project maintenance needs ahead of time (burn outs, flickering lights, etc.). For this reason, staff must rely on the public calling in complaints or they must make visual inspections after sunset. This has created a strong need to reduce customer complaints, minimize reactive maintenance, and establish proactive preventative maintenance on street lights. This level of improvement can only be achieved with a computer based system that actively monitors and reports on individual street lights. This concept is similar to how City traffic signals are currently maintained. Computer Based Maintenance General Electric is a manufacture of the street light fixtures which the City uses as a standard for new installation and replacement. They also have a wireless server-based street light monitoring system called StreetSmartsTM. This unique system uses cell phone technology to interconnect street lights to a central database server. A typical StreetSmartsTm network is comprised of specialized bases retrofitted onto existing photocells on the top of each street light fixture that "phone-in" performance information. This reporting is always active and includes information such as: time and date of each on/off occurrence; if the photo cell properly functioned; and if the lamp "on" and"off' times were correct. Pilot Program: Street Light Monitoring System Page 2 In atypical zone, one fixture is retrofitted with a receive/transmit base called an AccessPoint. All other fixtures in the zone are retrofitted with transmit-only, bases called Checkpoints. The Che&Points all report to the AccessPdint which relays all performance data.to a central network server. In multiple zone arrangements, AccessPoints can "talk" to each other as needed to relay data to the server if there are distance or terrain limits. StreetSmartsTM groups lights into scalable zones able to support up to 500 light fixtures. It is a modular system in that light fixtures can be added in small or large quantities as time and funding permit. Evaluation of the System For the recommended installation, 50 fixtures would be retrofitted and the central server support would be leased for an annual fee from the installer at an off-site location. The 50 lights chosen to be monitored are in the Foothill area within Highland, Ferrini, Patricia and Cerro Romaldo. This area was selected based on age of lights, maintenance history, pole condition, and relative remoteness of the area for service. If evaluation of the StreetSmartsTM system is deemed successful; funding to add more lights and establish an in-house database server would be submitted as a new capital improvement project plan request, if, and when the City's financial condition improves. By piloting this program now, we can be better positioned to implement this service and efficiency improvement when feasible. FISCAL IMPACT On June 21, 2005, Council approved a project for adding fused disconnects to existing street lights. This project funding was first established in 2003 and provides an annual amount of $50,000 for retrofitting the existing inventory of City owned lighting poles with fused disconnects. The intent is for City maintenance staff to be able to safely disconnect electrical power to street lights needing service instead of having to request PG&E shut down the high voltage power source: In the course of performing the first of these retrofits, a simpler and less expensive technique was developed that allows metal ,poles (a majority of our inventory) to be retrofitted. It is expected that this simplified technique will reduce the overall anticipated costs to retrofit all poles. Therefore, staff is recommending $16,388 of the fused disconnect project be used for the StreetSmartsTM installation, with the balance remaining in the Street Light Electric Service Project for retrofitting poles. Purchase Costs: Street Light Electric Service project balance 100,432 Proposed StreetSmart®Purchase (16,400) Remaining.Balance 84,032 ALTERNATIVES Continue to only provide complaint and visual inspection based street light system maintenance ATTACHMENTS 1. Proposal from General Electric 2. Map of proposed installation area J:\USERS\EVERYONE\_CAR Reports\2005\Streets-Lights\StreetSmarts\CAR-Street Smarts installation.doc 7 Attachment:l GE Lighting Systems, hzc. Peter Porte GE Lighting S.catem.c,.lite. 5outhWevern Region Slanager pete.porteCgrhighting.ge.eom G E LIGHTING SYSTEMS—QUOTATION Quote#: Q257677A Quote Date: 1/14/05 Expire Date: 3/14/05 Project Name: We are please to offer a quotation as follows: Project: "StreetSmartsTM Pilot for City of San Louis Obispo, CA" Cat Number Item Number Qty Price Ext Price SMP1 1 Lot $16,388.00 " Proof of concept pilot package consisting of:. 50 CheckPoints 1 GPRS Modem AccessPoint 12 months system monitoring fees 12 months AccessPoint communications fees 1 day installation support and user training CPTL3090A 1 $157.00 ea CheckPoint to be deployed to extend the system beyond the initial 50 unit pilot APTL5091 CA 1 $2,100 ea AccessPoint to be deployed(approximately 1 pec 500 CheckPoints) When additional CheckPoints are added M1 (Budget price only) 1 $5.83 ea "12 months (1 .year) monitoring fees for 1 (one) CheckPoint to be contracted directly with Telemicsi Inc after the initial 12 month period." C1 (Budget price only) 1 $1,1627.00 ea `12 months (1 year) communications charges for 1 (one) AccessPoint to be contracted Page 1 of 2 �/ Attachment 1 directly with Tele-mics,Inc: after the initial 12 month period" Quotation based on order through G E Lighting Systems authorized Distributor—Price includes distributor mark up Quote is subject to approval Quote subject to G E Lighting Systems standard terms and conditions of sale. Sincerely Pete Porte G E Lighting Systems SouthWestern.Region Manager 92$-855-7223 fx 928-855-7237 Page 2 of 2 � MaIWO m r •- =mawa� r� -1� Ron ktzm-� Mal Bill JU wil AN Re q g "lint �■ � iM- an W, ;,ter.,�.---,• •.....: ■ ., lift, r .. 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