The City of Tucson is soliciting proposals from qualified contractors/manufacturers to provide 5/8 X 3/4” and larger meters compatible with Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology. Meters shall be delivered to a Tucson Water Stores facility. Location(s) shall be determined at a later date.
Tucson Water serves approximately 722,000 people (just over 70% of the population of the Tucson metropolitan area) within a 350 square-mile service area. About one-third of the utility's customers reside outside the city limits. Residential accounts (single family, multi-family and duplex/triplex) make up close to 93% of all potable metered connections.
The Contractor shall provide 5/8 X 3/4” through 16” Water Meters compatible with AMI technology, to include alarms, for use by Tucson Water in residential and commercial installations for both reclaimed and potable water systems.
The City intends to award all required sizes and models to the manufacturers meeting qualifications, specifications, pricing and testing criteria, with up to five (5) awards anticipated. Proposed products must have been commercially available for a minimum of one (1) year prior to the solicitation closing date.
To ensure a comprehensive selection of products and provide adequate geographic coverage for Tucson Water customers, the City reserves the right to make multiple awards.
The resulting contract(s) shall be a cooperative contract, and eligible participating agencies shall have the option to use the contract(s) to purchase water meters from the contractor.
Project Details
- Reference ID: 270118
- Department: Water Department
- Department Head: John Kmiec (Director)
Important Dates
- Questions Due: 2026-08-12T21:00:00.000Z
- Pre-Proposal Meeting: 2026-08-05T20:00:00.000Z — Microsoft Teams Meeting - Virtual
Evaluation Criteria
- COMPLIANCE WITH METER DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS (50 pts) —
A. Functional Specifications:
- Indicate whether the firm can meet the Tucson Water design specifications or not. Offerors may propose alternatives to the Tucson Water requirements, provided that the offeror explains how the alternative design specifications will still provide equivalent functionality.
- Offerors shall state design features of register and register numerals, which contribute to easy reading of the register from the height of an average size person to a below ground meter.
- Offerors shall state design features of register and register glass which will provide scratch resistant lens and minimize accumulation of dirt and debris, thereby maintaining readability of meter.
- Offerors shall state characteristics, dimensions, and imprinting method of the serial numbers imprinted on meter case and register lid that will ensure legible serial numbers throughout the life of the meter.
- Offerors shall state the interchangeability of register shrouds and lids between meter sizes.
- Offerors shall state the size of meter flange bolt holes on all meters.
- Offerors shall provide information on all the external dimensions of the meters they are offering to the City. This shall be done for each meter size offered.
- Offerors shall describe how meter design and construction shall facilitate easy assembly and disassembly. Please include complete manufacturers' descriptive literature for the proposed product. Literature shall have sufficient detail in order to allow a complete evaluation of the offer submitted.
- Performance of the meters should minimize friction loss per cubic foot of water measured. Offerors shall state the maximum friction loss in PSI per cubic foot of water measured for each meter size specified in this RFP.
- Each Offeror shall furnish its most current product and service literature. This literature shall contain a complete and detailed description of each meter the Offeror proposes to furnish, suitable for evaluation. Information must be submitted with the proposal and must include detailed physical, construction, performance, and manufacturer’s standard national warranty/guarantee information.
- Offerors shall explain tamper resistant features.
- Offerors shall describe the features of the meter and integral unit which help prevent it from malfunctioning and preventing the accurate registration of water flow.
- Offerors shall state their ability to pre-wire the Itron ERT module and wiring harness to the register. Wire length shall be up to 12 ft.
- Offerors shall state their ability to assemble the ERT module as an integral part of the register with no visible wires.
- Offerors must state their ability to provide meters capable of either left or right side Itron 500W ERT module attachment.
- Offerors shall state their ability to provide meter serial numbers as required.
- Offerors shall state their ability to provide a meter serial number bar code sticker that may be removed from the meter or the factory tag and secured to City’s paperwork order.
- Offerors shall describe how to replace the register in the field by Water Department Personnel.
B. Training:
1. Offerors shall state any training program available to Tucson Water and participating agencies, at the manufacturer’s expense, which shall include, but not be limited to:
a. Repair and replacement of meter parts for each size meter.
b. Testing of each size meter.
c. Calibration methods, if applicable, of each meter size.
C. Warranty and Guarantee:
- Offerors shall state the number of years for which the main case is warranted against leaking or failure of any kind.
- Offerors shall state the period for which meters are guaranteed against failures of any and all operating parts or inability to perform because of faulty construction or materials. Offerors shall state this period for each meter size listed on the price sheet of this RFP. Offerors shall describe the process for turning in meters for warranty. Include shipping details.
- Offerors shall state the period for which registers are unconditionally guaranteed against failure for any reason, other than tampering or vandalism. This would be a no-cost replacement.
- Offerors shall state the period after installation for which meters would be guaranteed to perform according to AWWA new meter accuracy requirements. Offerors shall state this period for each meter size listed on the price sheet of this RFP. Offerors shall state any gallon restrictions.
- Offerors shall state the period after installation for which meters would be guaranteed to perform according to AWWA repaired meter accuracy requirements. Offerors shall state this period for each meter size listed on the price sheet of this RFP. Offerors shall state any gallon restrictions.
- Offerors shall state the level of support that will be provided to the City of Tucson in the event that a shipment of meters fails to meet the contract specifications upon receipt.
- Offerors shall state the level of support that will be provided to the City of Tucson should the meters fail to meet contract specifications after installation.
- Offerors shall describe their ability to warrant the integral unit should the unit fail to accurately transmit the registration of water flow.
- Offerors shall describe how all enhancements and upgrades of meter components are delivered as part of the annual contract. List the typical frequency of major upgrades, minor releases, and bug fixes, and state whether upgrades are cumulative. In addition, describe the ability to ensure, through version tracking and control, that modules remain compatible as selected modules are upgraded.
D. AMI Support:
Offerors shall describe their ability to work with the City’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) vendor (Itron, Inc.), for technological training, warranty issues, problem resolution and support. Offeror shall describe their ability to support Itron standards in areas such as communication protocols, security, EDI, object technology, user interfaces, etc. Please comment on any area where you do NOT support Itron standards.
- PRICE PROPOSAL (30 pts) —
Provide price proposal as requested on the Price Page attached herein.
- QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE (20 pts) —
- State the location and name of the local representative responsible for providing service on this contract. What is the value of local inventory of meters available within 1 – 3 days?
- Provide a general overview of your company, including number of years in business, number of employees, and daytime working hours. Include a brief history and description of your firm.
- Offeror shall indicate whether the firm is presently or has been involved in any litigation, bankruptcy or reorganization.
- Each offeror shall submit a customer reference listing. This list shall include names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers of a minimum of five utility type organizations for which the offeror has had the same cold-water type meters being offered to the City in this RFP/Contract installed and operating for a minimum of three years. At least three of the references should be from water utilities that service more than 75,000 water customer accounts.
- If a portion of the work is to be performed by a sub-contractor, Offeror shall identify the sub-contractor, provide contact information, and identify the work to be performed by the sub-contractor.
- Offerors who submit an offer as a manufacturer's representative must supplement the offer with a letter from each manufacturer involved. The letter shall certify that the vendor is authorized to provide the specific equipment presented, that the vendor is authorized to submit an offer on such equipment, and shall guaranty that should the vendor fail to fulfill any obligations established as a result of a Contract award, the manufacturer, upon assignment by the City, will either assume such obligations or provide an alternate authorized vendor for the balance of the Contract period. All other terms and conditions of the Contract shall remain the same.
- All products offered must have been commercially available for at least 1 year. Please provide documentation that supports the requirement, including, but not limited to, a copy of the product(s) initial announcement.
Submission Requirements
- Discounts —
As stated in the Instructions to Offerors. Discounts, the price(s) herein can be discounted by _______%, if payment is made within ______ days. These payment terms shall apply to all purchases and to all payment methods.
- Cooperative Purchasing Program —
Cooperative Purchasing allows other public agencies to piggyback on the City of Tucson’s contracts. Will your firm provide the City of Tucson, as the lead agency on this regional contract, a rebate in the form of a percentage of sales based upon the other agencies sales?
- If yes, please state the percentage rebate you will provide.
- Does your firm have a City of Tucson Business License?
- Please upload a copy of your business license.
- Forms to be Filled Out —
Please ensure that all required information is included with your response.
Response to Evaluation Criteria
Pricing Proposal
- Attachments I, II, III
- Manufacturers' descriptive literature for the proposed meters
Offer and Acceptance Form
- Response to Evaluation Criteria (required) —
Please upload your response to the Evaluation Criteria. Include Attachments I, II, & III and manufacturers' literature.
- Pricing Proposal (required) —
Please enter pricing using the price tables provided in OpenGov Procurement.
- Offer and Acceptance Form (required) —
Please upload your signed Offer and Acceptance form.
- Does your response to this solicitation include a request to keep any portion confidential and withhold it from the public record? (required) —
Please note: The City of Tucson is a public agency subject to public records laws. Therefore, all requests to withhold information from the public record must be accompanied by justification. Pricing will not be held confidential.
- Confidential Information (required) —
If you answered yes, then you must use this field to identify the sections of your submittal that you are requesting be withheld from public record.
If sections are not identified as confidential in this field, your request to hold information confidential may not be accepted.
Please note: The City of Tucson is a public agency subject to public records laws. Therefore, all requests to withhold information from the public record must be accompanied by justification. Pricing will not be held confidential.
- Is your firm submitting any exceptions for the City's consideration? (required) —
In accordance with Instructions to Offerors - Exceptions to Contract Provisions, any exceptions that an offeror wishes to submit for the City's consideration must be indicated here in order to be considered.
- Define the exceptions you are requesting. (required)
- Living Wage (required) —
Will Living Wage Requirements be a part of the resulting contract?
- Will the resultant contract have Federal Funding? (required)
- Special Terms and Conditions (required) —
Please select the required language that should be included under Special Terms and Conditions for this project. Please select all that apply.
- Insurance Requirements (required) —
Please select the additional insurance coverages required for this project. Please select all that apply.
- Initial Term of Contract (required) —
What is the initial term of the contract?
Please use the following format: one (1)
Even if you selected auto renewal, you need to add the initial term, i.e. one (1)
- Renewal Options (required) —
Will renewal options be given with this contract?
If you selected Auto Renewal, select No.
- Renewal Term (required) —
What is the renewal term of the contract?
Please use the following format: four (4)
If no extension options will be given or you selected automatic renewals, please enter "N/A".
- Pricing (required) —
Will you build the pricing table in OpenGov Procurement?
- Separate Pricing Document (required) —
If you will be requesting the pricing to be provided by the vendor outside of the OpenGov system, have you attached the required document to this solicitation?
- Attachments (required) —
Do you have any attachments?