Title
Approving a procurement contract with SOAP Engineering in the amount of $226,388 associated with the Programmable Logic Controller Replacement Project, and authorizing the City Manager to execute the same.
Summary
As part of the fiscal year 2025 budget, the City allocated funding to replace aging Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) systems that are utilized to control a variety of water and wastewater facilities across the City. Every water and wastewater facility across the City of Pflugerville has a PLC cabinet that opens valves, turns pumps on, notifies staff of intrusions, etc. while also allowing for the systems to run autonomously with little intervention from operations and maintenance staff. As all of these facilities came online at different times, the PLC systems that allow for the proper operation of the water and wastewater system have a variety of different programming software and have different obsolescence dates. Some of the current facilities have PLC systems that are unable to be upgraded any further given the age of the equipment which could soon pose a security risk for the site they control as they can no longer be updated to current standards to protect against any potential threats to the software that is used to program the PLC's.
In order to address these aging critical components to the City's water and wastewater system, the City publicly bid out the replacement of 13 remote sites across the City that have outdated PLC systems and are permanent facilities that will continue to stay in service after a variety of capital projects are completed. This project garnered significant interest even with the work being very specialized work to complete the installation of these PLC components and confirm the automation of the sites they are installed within. This project was bid out as a "Best Value" bid and not a "Lowest Price" bid given the specialty nature of the work and the need to evaluate the bidders' qualifications to comp...
Click here for full text