140R6023R0021_Sources_sought_2.pdf

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Missouri Basin (MB) Region – Regional Office is issuing this Sources Sought notice to determine the availability and capability of small business sources for a contemplated construction project titled: Mt. Elbert 230kV Cable Repair. This notice is a tool to identify small businesses that have both the technical expertise and bonding capability to accomplish the work required for Mt. Elbert 230kV Cable Repair Project and is for informational purposes only. Information obtained through this notice may be used to determine the potential for issuing a future solicitation for this project as a total small business set-aside, and to provide input for the Government’s overall acquisition strategy.

A separate Request for Information/ Industry Day Notice has also been posted under this same solicitation number, 140R6023R0021, for Mt. Elbert 230kV Cable Repair Project.

Attending the Industry Day is not required to respond to this Sources Sought.

The Mt. Elbert Pumped Storage Powerplant is situated at approximately 9,200 ft. elevation on the edge of Twin Lakes approximately 15 miles south of Leadville, Colorado. The power generated at Mt. Elbert derives from water originally pumped from Twin Lakes, which acts as the Mt. Elbert afterbay, and also from supplemental water delivered from Turquoise Lake to the forebay. Two pump-generators are housed in the powerplant.

The Mt. Elbert powerplant and switchyard is electrically connected through a set of 230 kilovolt (kV) direct-buried, self-contained fluid-filled, oil-filled paper insulated power cables. Each unit transformer is connected to the switchyard through these cables. The self-contained, fluid-filled, cables originate at the switchyard and enter the ground through the Switchyard Cable Vaults.

They run underground, down the hill to the Powerplant Cable Tunnel. They are then carried through the tunnel to the Transformer Service Deck where they are terminated near the transformers. There are two cable circuits, each cable circuit consists of three single-phase cables for a total of six individual cables.

Work is located at the Mount Elbert Powerplant located approximately 20 miles south-southwest of Leadville, Colorado in Lake County, via Highway 24 (US 24) and Colorado Highway 82 (CO 82), 24 miles north-northwest of Buena Vista, CO via US 24 and CO 82, and 144 miles from Denver International Airport via Interstate 70 (I-70), US 24 and CO 82.

The plant entrance is on state road CO-82 about 4.6 miles west of US-24.

Coordinates: 39.094796, -106.354775 This is NOT a Request for Proposals or an Invitation for Bids and does not constitute any commitment by the Government. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this notice. All interested sources must respond to future solicitation announcements separately from responses to the sources sought notice.

The proposed NAICS code for this is 22111 Electric Power Generation.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK:

An independent contractor performed extended diagnostic tests on the 230kV underground cables in 2019. The testing indicated deficiencies regarding several components associated with the cable sheath (jacket) that require correction. Reclamation electrical engineers performed two rounds of follow-up diagnostics in 2019 and 2020 to better define and identify these deficiencies.

Testing has identified that it is not possible to confirm the root of the deficiencies without some form of excavation, coinciding with further testing, and repair. It is anticipated to perform partial excavation(s) and interim testing to fully investigate the issues. There will be a discovery period to ultimately define the full scope of work. The engineers reports and data will be made available during the Industry Day meetings for discussion purposes. It is highly encouraged for the contractor to bring engineering personnel to this meeting. USBR test engineers will be available for technical discussions.

A high-level overview of the issues:

1. Several cable shields exhibit low-resistance to ground (excavate, investigate, repair).

2. With the SVLs disconnected from the cable shields, the shields still present low insulation resistance with respect to earth ground. This could indicate a problem:

a. Just inside the SVL water-tight enclosure at the linking cable entry point or the cable terminations inside the water-tight enclosure.

b. With the linking cables connecting the SVLs to the buried cable splice(s).

c. With the buried splice(s) at the linking cable entry.

d. With the cable shields anywhere along the cable route.

e. With any combination of the above (a. – d.)

3. Several of the cable Sheath Voltage Limiters (SVLs) are damaged. These devices are potted into a water-tight enclosure and are not field-replaceable. A set of new, field-serviceable/replaceable SVLs with new water-tight enclosures are required (excavate, investigate, replace).

This type of repair will require a contractor to perform excavation, investigate the low resistance of the cable shield-to-ground issue, then be prepared to execute any type(s) of necessary repair depending on the findings. This could yield a wide scope of work from simply replacing the SVLs and water-tight enclosures to possibly excavating the cable splices and making additional splices to repair the oil-filled cable. If the existing cable splices are the source of the low shield-to-ground resistance and are damaged beyond repair, the contractor may have to perform a double-splice repair(s) using spare on-site cable and splice kits. The Government has spare cable onsite that would be considered Government Furnish Equipment along with only two cable splice bodies. Though the spare cable and splices are believed to be in useable condition the viability of the spare cable and splice bodies must also be evaluated by the contractor before use.

Depending on the scope of work (discovery) additional splices may need to be furnished by the contractor.

The estimated magnitude of this project is between $500,000.00 and $1,000,000.00.

LOCATION OF THE WORK:

Work is located along the south side of U.S. Route 50 / Colorado State Highway 96 (SH96) between Devine, Colorado and North Avondale, Colorado in Pueblo County. Disinfection operations will include pipe from Devine, Colorado to the Boone, Colorado and Avondale, Colorado.

INFORMATION REQUESTED:

When responding to this notice, respondents are asked to provide the following information:

1. Firm’s name, address, point of contact, phone number, email address, Cage Code, UEI number (replaced DUNS).

2. Business classification, to include size and any additional socioeconomic classification(s).

3. Bonding capability, including current single and aggregate performance and payment bond limits.

4. Brief capabilities statement that addresses experience performing similar projects as a prime contractor.

5. Listing of at least two to a maximum of five previous and/or current projects where the firm has successfully performed construction/install of pipelines. Describe the size and scope of the project(s), and dollar value of the contract. Identify percentage of work on the project(s) that was self-performed. Short responses are appreciated, no need to provide verbose past performance information.

SUBMIT TO:

Responses to this Sources Sought notice should be received no later than 2:00 pm MT on September 22, 2023. Submit responses by email to the attention of Jessica Busman, Contract Officer: Email – jbusman@usbr.gov.

mailto:jbusman@usbr.gov