AgdaPkt 2010-05-24 special, clsd and jnt

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6.3E Page 1 REPORT To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the City Mana er May 24, 2010 SUBJECT Redwood City Meter Replacement Project -WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grant Application RECOMMENDATION Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to commit the City to the financial and legal obligations associated with receipt of WaterSMART Grant financial assistance. BACKGROUND In January 2009, Redwood City began the first year of its newest water conservation program entitled The Budget Based Rates Program (Program}. The new Program allocates a water budget for each dedicated irrigation account based on each customer's irrigated area using real-time weather data and charges them using athree- tiered rate system. As a part of the Program, a pilot project was initiated using Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI). This allowed irrigation meter readings to be collected via radio waves instead of the conventional walk/read method. The new irrigation meters allow irrigation customers to view hourly water use information through the City's Water Allocation Program web-tool. This enables the City to provide irrigation customers (mostly commercial) with daily water budget and consumption information in near real-time. Because irrigation meter readings are being collected hourly, the City is also able to provide automated email notifications to these customers. Daily email alerts are sent to any customer who has a continuous water leak, allowing the customer to locate and repair the leak as soon as possible. [n addition, a weekly "over budget alert" is sent to customers who have exceeded their water budget by at least 5%. This allows customers to reset irrigation timers or address inefficiencies within their irrigation systems before going over their budgeted amount of water. The results of Redwood City's Budget Based Rates Program have been overwhelmingly positive. In calendar year 2009, Redwood City reduced irrigation usage by 15% over calendar year 2008. This was equivalent to 246 acre-feet, or 80 million gallons of water savings. The success of this Program is due in part to the City's AMI pilot project and Public Works Services has identified an opportunity to leverage this new technology by making it available to all of its water customers. Public Works Services (PWS) is planning to implement aCity-wide five-year meter replacement project and has submitted an application to the Bureau of Reclamation to request grant funding for Phase I of the residentia! portion. Installation of the new automated meters will allow residential customers to view hourly water usage information through the City's new web-tool. The City will then have the opportunity to provide residential customers with the same, near real-time water budget and consumption information that is currently provided to irrigation customers. Additionally,