Black Hills Energy_Memorandum of Understanding for Natural Gas Pilot ProgramMasterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Black Hills Natural Gas Pilot Program
DATE: December 2, 2010
Dubuque
bitil
Ammaica t y
2007
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project Manager David Lyons and Assistant City
Manager Cindy Steinhauser are recommending approval to enter into a Memorandum
of Understanding with Black Hills Energy Corporation to conduct a natural gas pilot
program as part of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque. Smarter Sustainable Dubuque is
part of the City of Dubuque's Sustainable Dubuque Initiative, which began in 2006 and
seeks to make Dubuque a community that meets the environmental, economic and
social equity needs of its residents today without reducing the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.
The City of Dubuque has been working with IBM Research for over a year now on
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque. Efforts successfully underway already include the
Smarter Water and Smarter Electricity pilots. Conversation is underway to potentially
incorporate Vehicle Miles Traveled (Transit) in the near future. The overall concept is to
provide citizens with real time information to be able to assist them in saving money and
time, while conserving resources and reducing green house gas emissions, through
more effective utilization of resources. Incorporating as many "silos" of energy
utilization as possible into the model will give citizens the maximum opportunity to
discover long term savings through resource utilization changes. Natural gas is a
critical component of Dubuque's energy utilization, particularly as the community's
primary source of energy for heat during winter months.
As part of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque, Black Hills Energy will install 250 natural gas
AMI units (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) for project participants in Dubuque and for
a period of two years provide individual gas usage and related data to the City and IBM
for research purposes. The pilot will work with volunteer households and data will be
provided only in an anonymous manner and individually identifiable data will not be
made available. Black Hills Energy, and its vendor ITRON, will handle the purchase,
installation and support of all needed equipment. The City would authorize co- location
of a transmitter with its existing infrastructure and together with Dubuque 2.0 (a
community dialogue conducted by the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce and the
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque), assist in the recruitment of the 250
volunteer households for the pilot. The pilot would take advantage of existing
infrastructure and processes already in place to support the Smarter Water and Smarter
Electricity portions of the initiative. Other than this support, there would be no direct
expenses or funding required of the City.
concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
niu II)
Michael C. Van Milligen ('�,
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
David Lyons, Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project. Manager
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: David Lyons, Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project Manager
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
SUBJECT: Black Hills Natural Gas Pilot Program
DATE: December 1, 2010
Introduction
The purpose of this memorandum is to request City Council approval to enter into the attached
Memorandum of Understanding with Black Hills Energy Corporation for the conduct of a natural
gas pilot program as part of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque. Smarter Sustainable Dubuque is
part of the City of Dubuque's Sustainable Dubuque Initiative, which began in 2006 and seeks to
make Dubuque a community that meets the environmental, economic and social equity needs
of its residents today without reducing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Background
The City of Dubuque has been working with IBM Research for over a year now on Smarter
Sustainable Dubuque. Efforts successfully underway already include the Smarter Water and
Smarter Electricity pilots. Conversation is underway to potentially incorporate Vehicle Miles
Traveled (Transit) in the near future. The overall concept is to provide citizens with real time
information to be able to assist them in saving money and time, while conserving resources and
reducing green house gas emissions, through more effective utilization of resources.
Incorporating as many "silos" of energy utilization as possible into the model will give citizens
the maximum opportunity to discover long term savings through resource utilization changes.
Natural gas is a critical component of Dubuque's energy utilization, particularly as the
community's primary source of energy for heat during winter months.
Dubuque
kilkil
All- Ameica city
r
2007
Discussion
As part of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque, Black Hills Energy will install 250 natural gas AMI units
(Advanced Metering Infrastructure) for project participants in Dubuque and for a period of two
years provide individual gas usage and related data to the City and IBM for research purposes.
The pilot will work with volunteer households and data will be provided only in an anonymous
manner and individually identifiable data will not be made available. Black Hills Energy, and its
vendor ITRON, will handle the purchase, installation and support of all needed equipment. The
City would authorize co- location of a transmitter with its existing infrastructure and together
with Dubuque 2.0, assist in the recruitment of the 250 volunteer households for the pilot. The
pilot would take advantage of existing infrastructure and processes already in place to support
the Smarter Water and Smarter Electricity portions of the initiative. Other than this support,
there would be no direct expenses or funding required of the City.
Request
We respectfully request City Council approve the attached Memorandum of Understanding
between the City of Dubuque and Black Hills Energy for the conduct of a 250 household pilot on
natural gas data and utilization as part of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque.
Cc: Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Chris Kohlmann, Information Services Manager
Cori Burbach, Sustainability Coordinator
Eric Dregne, Dubuque 2.0
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
BETWEEN
THE CITY OF DUBUQUE
AND
BLACK HILLS ENERGY
FOR
THE SUSTAINABLE DUBUQUE AMI PILOT PROJECT
This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is made and entered into by and between
the City of Dubuque (City) and Black Hills /Iowa Gas Utility Company, LLC d /b /a Black
Hills Energy (Black Hills) to set forth the understandings and obligations of the parties
pertaining to City's Sustainable Dubuque AMI Pilot Project to assess energy efficiency
technologies (the Project).
1. Scope /Objective
The overall objective of the Project is for Black Hills to install 250 Advanced Metering
Infrastructure (AMI) meters for Project participants in Dubuque, Iowa and for a period of
two years to provide the individual customer gas usage and related data to City for
restricted display on a web portal and for independent analysis in accordance with the
City's research objectives for the Project and for the City to provide any and all analysis,
reports or other deliverables resulting from such analysis to Black Hills.
2. Term
a. The term of this MOU shall commence on the date when the last of the two
parties has executed this MOU and shall expire upon completion of both
parties' Project obligations set forth herein, currently estimated to be no later
than December 31, 2012 or earlier as set forth herein.
b. Black Hills may terminate this MOU upon prior written notice to City in the
event City or its contractors, including IBM, in the sole determination of Black
Hills, breaches any term of this MOU, including but not limited to the Data
restrictions set forth below.
c. In the event of expiration or termination:
• Black Hills will immediately cease providing Data to City and City will
immediately cease providing anonymized Data to IBM.
• City will stop displaying the anonymized individualized customer
usage Data on the portal.
• City and IBM's limited license to use the anonymized Data provided
shall be governed by Section 6 below.
3. Assumptions related to the Project
a. The Project participants shall be current customers of Black Hills located
within areas mutually agreed by Black Hills and City.
b. The Project participants may be screened by Black Hills for elimination from
participation in the Project for reasons determined appropriate solely by Black
Hills, which may include but are not limited to, insufficient network overage,
irregular bill payment history, renter rather than homeowner, or other
applicable criteria.
c. Customer billing data will not be provided to City.
d. The Data will be collected starting approximately January 1, 2011 for a
minimum two -year period for each participant.
e. Black Hills will provide historical usage data for the previous twelve months
for project participants.
4. Obligations of City
a. City shall securely provide Black Hills with a complete list of potential
participants, including names, addresses, participant's Anonymous ID
number, and other applicable information. City shall provide prompt periodic
secure updates of this list to Black Hills for additional customers and removal
of customers, including dropouts.
b. City shall provide secure test and production FTP sites with security
consistent with Black Hills policies and requirements, for review and approval
by Black Hills prior to implementation of the pilot. Data transmission must
comply with best practices for file transfer using Secure FTP.
c. City shall provide access and assistance, as reasonably feasible and agreed
to by the parties, to existing physical and communication infrastructure that
would facilitate equipment installation and data collection and transmission.
d. The Data transmitted is confidential information and must be protected by City
and its contractors from unauthorized use or users.
e. City shall promptly refer any meter and billing related questions, inquiries, or
complaint from participants to Black Hills for resolution at 1- 563 - 585 -4010.
f. City is the primary point of contact for participants regarding the Project. Black
Hills is the primary point of contact for participants regarding meters.
g. City may use the Data provided by Black Hills, subject to Section 6 below.
h. City shall provide other deliverables to Black Hills for this Project as follows:
• Reports, analysis, and derivative works resulting from the Data
provided by the Black Hills with unlimited rights for Black Hills, to
include at a minimum, the information showing how customers
changed their behavior and attained a heightened awareness of their
energy usage.
• Black Hills may use, reproduce, display, publish, or distribute, in
whole or in part, any of City's deliverables and may create derivative
works therefrom.
6. Data
i. City shall promptly provide drafts of all communications that reference Black
Hills for review prior to publication or distribution. Black Hills shall have a
reasonable period of time to review such submissions.
5. Obligations of Black Hills
a. Black Hills shall develop and provide to City screening criteria that Black Hills
will use in screening potential Project participants from the potential
participants identified by City.
b. Black Hills will review and approve a final list of project participants in
accordance with such criteria prior to collection of data.
c. Black Hills shall address participants' questions, inquiries and complaints
related to meters in accordance with its standard procedures for all customer
inquiries at 1- 563 - 585 -4010 or through another referral method to be mutually
agreed upon by both parties.
d. Black Hills may drop any participants at any time for any reason, upon written
notice to the City.
e. Black Hills shall provide deliverables to the City for this Project as follows:
• Data as further described in Section 6 below
• Up to 250 gas AMI meters configured for 1 hour interval reads
including installation, trouble shooting, and repair /replacement.
• Twelve months of historical usage data for Project participants
f. Black Hills shall transfer any customer calls regarding the Project to City's call
center at 1- 563 - 690 -6111 or email SSD @cityofdubuque.org.
a. City is granted a limited license to reproduce, use and sublicense the Data to
IBM only in anonymized form. IBM's rights to the anonymized Data will be a
limited, irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide, and fully paid -up license to use,
reproduce and distribute the anonymized Data furnished by the City under its
agreements with IBM for the following purposes: (i) as necessary to perform
the work required of IBM; (ii) to demonstrate IBM's resulting Prototype Service
to third parties; (iii) to publish the results of the Project in scientific journals,
periodicals, and conference papers and presentations; and (iv) for internal
use for research purposes. IBM may not sublicense the anonymized Data to
any third party.
b. City is granted a limited license to use and reproduce the Data in order to
display the Data in a restricted web portal so that each customer may only
view its own Data and no other customers may view a customer's Data.
c. City may not otherwise transfer, sell or license the individual customer Data
supplied by Black Hills or used by the City to any third party in written or
electronic form. Other than as set forth above, all Data will be used,
reproduced, displayed, or published in reports only on an aggregated basis or
as specifically approved in advance in by Black Hills.
d. Data files to be supplied by Black Hills will consist of the participant's
Anonymous ID number and raw read Data files containing mutually agreed -to
information that is normally read from the meter and is available from the
Remote Network Interface (RNI)
e. Black Hills will use commercially reasonable efforts to read meters and to
transmit Data to City's secure FTP site at least one time per day.
f. For meters designated as one -hour interval read meters, the interval Data
reads will be a maximum of 24 one -hour increments per day.
g. The parties will mutually agree on the file format for Data transmittals. Black
Hills disclaims any responsibility, liability, or warranty related to the Data,
including but not limited to, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose,
suitability, accuracy, or completeness.
h. City represents and warrants that it has and will maintain adequate systems
and other controls in place to protect the Data supplied by Black Hills in
accordance with the requirements of this MOU.
i. Black Hills will provide one time, in a mutually agreed upon digital file format,
historical monthly consumption data covering twelve prior months to the start
of receipt of AMI supplied data for 250 pilot participants. Each record in the
file shall include an anonymous Identification Number along with a month
and /or read date indicating when the reading was done. Consumption or raw
reading data or meter reading that consumption can be calculated from is to
be included. Estimates should also be included but shall be designated as
such.
7. Communication
a. Notices or other communications related to this MOU will be sent in writing or
electronic mail to:
• Notices sent to Black Hills will be sent to:
Mark Ernst
Eastern Iowa Operations Manager
Black Hills Energy Corporation
1015 Cedar Cross Road
Dubuque, IA 52003
E -mail: mark.ernst @blackhillscorp.com
• Notices sent to the City will be sent to:
The City of Dubuque
Attention: City Manager
90 West 13 Street
Dubuque, Iowa 50301
E -mail: ctymgr @cityofdubuque.org
8. Other Considerations
a. Each party will bear its own costs and liabilities of participating in this Project.
b. Nothing in this MOU shall be deemed to constitute or create a joint venture,
partnership, or any type of permanent arrangement. The parties shall act in
all matters related to this MOU as independent contractors. The employees
of one party shall not be deemed employees of the other party. Nothing in
this MOU shall grant to any party the right to make commitments of any kind
or create any obligation, express or implied, for or on behalf of the other party
without the prior written consent of the other party.
c. No publicity or advertising will be released by City that directly or indirectly
references that Black Hills is providing support for this Project or refers to
Black Hills or uses Black Hill's name and /or logo without Black Hill's prior
written consent. Similarly, Black Hills shall not release publicity or advertising
concerning this Project without the prior consent of City.
d. Neither City nor its contractor, IBM, may assign or transfer its duties,
interests, or obligations under this MOU without obtaining the prior written
consent of Black Hills.
e. A party shall not be in default because of any failure to perform or delay in
performing this MOU if the failure or delay arises from causes beyond the
control and without the fault or negligence of such party.
The City of ubuque
By:
Name:
Title:
Roy D. Buol
Mayor
Black Hills /lowa Gas Utility Company, LLC
By; Tracy Peterson
Name: Tracey Peterson
Title: VP Gas Operations
Authorization for Release of Information to Third Parties
Black Hills /Iowa Gas Utility Company, LLC d /b /a Black Hills Energy has agreed to work with the City of
Dubuque on its Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Pilot Project, subject to the consent of individual
customers. The City is requesting natural gas usage and related data for display in a restricted and
secure web portal hosted by a third party, VerityThree, Inc. of McHenry, IL for each customer of Black
Hills Energy who agrees to participate in the City's project. Each customer will receive a unique
identification number to allow access to only his or her portal. In addition, the City is using the services of
IBM to develop the web portal. IBM will have use of the energy usage and related data in anonymized or
aggregated form for such product development, for demonstrations of the developed product to third
parties, to produce reports to be published by the City or IBM in various forms including public
presentations, and for research purposes. At no time will individually identifiable information be released.
The data will remain owned by you, the customer, but these three entities will have the rights to use the
data as described above. The release of information will be valid for a minimum period of two (2) years.
To authorize the City of Dubuque and its two contractors (VerityThree, Inc. and IBM) to receive
your energy usage and related data as described above regarding the following utility account(s),
please complete the form below, sign it, and return it to: Black Hills Energy, (Pilot Project) 1015
Cedar Cross Rd, Dubuque, IA 52003.
Customer Name
Address
City State Zip
Phone Number
Email
Account Number (if known)
Black Hills/lowa Gas Utility Company, LLC has my permission to share my account information with the
entities named above. I hereby release Black Hills Energy from any and all liability associated with
releasing such information.
Customer Signature
Date
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque is part of the City of Dubuque's Sustainable Dubuque Initiative, which
began in 2006 and seeks to make Dubuque a community that meets the environmental, economic, and
social equity needs of its residents today without reducing the ability of future generations to meet their
needs. The goal of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque is to give residents the information they need to make
smarter choices related to how they use resources such as water, electricity, natural gas, and oil. The
initiative is engaging Dubuque residents and businesses who, through advanced technology, will be able
to actively participate in managing their consumption of resources.