Wallingford utility to buy new meters

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday January 9, 2013

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225

WALLINGFORD - The Electric Division received a bid waiver from the Town Council Tuesday night so it can buy $57,000 worth of new meters for its three substations.

“These meters are the ones that are used by several power entities to register and monitor the flow of electric energy from the grid into our system,” said Public Utilities Director George Adair.

In a letter to Adair, Electric Division General Manager Richard Hendershot said the new meters are becoming common across the state and it is important Wallingford have the same equipment as neighboring towns. “At this time, CL&P and all of the other CMEEC-participating municipal electric systems are in the process of replacing their meters ... or are planning to do so in their next budget cycle,” he wrote. “These meters have become the de facto standard ... in this region.”

Republican Councilor Craig Fishbein asked if the Electric Division had investigated meters produced by other companies that may cost less. Adair said it had not, but he doesn’t believe the $6,366.57 price tag for each of the nine meters is out of line.

Democratic Councilor Jason Zandri said that, in future bid waiver requests, he’d like to see quotes from other manufacturers.

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said the Electric Division’s request was based on standardization of equipment and working with a reliable manufacturer rather than finding the absolute lowest price.

“Our system has to fit in with others,” he said. “I’m not sure it would be appropriate on a subject like this for us to develop information about the pluses or minuses of other projects. The real issue is we need to standardize. Price is second.”

Adair said he would work with the Purchasing Department to see if CL&P or other companies had any interest in purchasing the old meters.

In other business at Tuesday’s brief meeting, the Town Council accepted two donations: $250 from resident Alice Souza to the Veterans’ Service Office to purchase gift cards for needy Wallingford veterans and their families and $3,500 from chemical company Evonik Industries to the police, fire, and health departments as a thank-you for their preparation and action during Hurricane Sandy.

“We hope this helps to keep everything running fine,” said Peter Stein, manager of Evonik’s South Cherry Street plant.