Commissioners Court Meeting

Issue viewing agenda items? Click here to switch to the old format.

Return to the Minutes Page

Meeting Date:	05/29/2018
Ratify Service for Emergency Electrical Panel at Lift Station
Submitted for:	Adrian Montemayor	Submitted By:	Adrian Montemayor
Department:	Water Utilities

Subject:

Discussion and possible action to ratify the emergency authorization of services to Square E Engineering in the amount of $17,520.00 for response, troubleshooting, temporary service, electrical panel expedited order and installation of a 400 amp panelboard to match existing including wiring and testing. [Account #7200-7280-001-44300-035 (Repairs and Maint. of Equipment)]

Issue: Loss of power at our critical lift station that provides temporary storage of raw sewage before it is pumped to the plant for treatment was identified. Upon response by contractor it was identified that the complete panel was destroyed through some type of short or surcharge. As we identified through the troubleshooting of the contractor that a new panel would be necessary, the contractor was instructed to order on an expedited basis the manufacture and shipment of the panel for our operation. The pumping of raw sewage was temporarily continued through bypass of conventional power with generator service to prevent the possible discharge of 180,000 gallons per day. This would have instituted potential response from TCEQ and EPA regarding mediation penalty.

Solution: The panel was received and installed on May 16th, 2018 providing for conventional power service with our diesel backup generator placed back on stand by.

Resolution: An evaluation with the assistance of AEP will commence to identify the reason for the incident and how it can be prevented in the future.

Background:

An unknown charge caused a complete frying of the electrical panel deeming the plant inoperative through conventional power. It is currently operating under backup diesel power until a new panel can be ordered and installed. We cannot assure the operation under back up power for extended periods of time.

Upon the identification of the power loss and loss of operation of the lift station, we contacted our instrumentation contractor to assist in identifying the loss of pump operation control. His response and evaluation identified the cause of the interruption at that time to be the fried electrical panel. However, we will not know until for conventional power is restored if the instrumentation control system is working properly.

I asked the contractor (Square E Engineering) to provide me a cost for the panel replacement on an expedited process. Upon receiving the cost of the equipment and installation, I asked him to proceed on an emergency basis with the expectation that he was the annual contractor at the time to get a head start on the equipment acquisition.

Previous Court Action:

None

Fiscal Impact

Budget Account Number:	7200-7080-001-44300-
Funding Source:	Operational Funds
Balance:	24,430.84
Financial Impact:
Wastewater Operational Funds, Repair and Maintenance of Equipment

Attachments
Proposal