High Energy Arcing Faults Testing Facility and Services

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to award a non-competitive, fixed-price contract to Kema-Powertest, LLC for the project entitled, “High Energy Arcing Faults (HEAF) Testing Facility and Services.” The acquisition is conducted under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 which provides for limiting competition in those situations where the supplies or services are available from only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy the agency requirements. The designated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541990- All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. The performance period is estimated from July 01, 2020 through June 30, 2025.

The purpose of this acquisition is to provide HEAF testing facilities and services. The test facility shall provide the electrical energy, thermal measurement instrumentation and data acquisition, electrical measurement, equipment preparation facilities, and testing facility to perform high energy arcing fault testing. The work required includes tasks that provide the following: on-site short term storage, on-site work preparation area, electrical arc test power supply and delivery system, testing cell, documentation of test results, ASTM thermal instrumentation and disposal of tested equipment.

The required HEAF testing must be performed in an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17025 accredited high power testing facility. All tasks require delivery of a high power electrical supply capable of providing three phase ac power. The voltage levels for each test shall be representative of the rating for the equipment being tested. The nominal operating voltage of equipment being tested shall be between 440Vac and 15,000Vac. The high power energy supply shall be capable of providing current capacity in the range between 10kA and 35kA at a nominal frequency of 60 Hertz.  The test duration will be dependent on other test parameters, but be in the range of 2 to 8 seconds.  Explicit voltage, current, X/R ratio, and fault time shall vary by the specific equipment tested.  In addition, the testing area shall allow for combustion of target materials for time duration up to 10 minutes.

KEMA Powertest, LLC is the only independent, high power testing facility that is capable of supporting high energy arc fault testing and whose facility policies allow the equipment to continue to burn for an extended period of time to allow for better characterization of the fire hazard.  Further, KEMA Powertest, LLC staff have developed their existing capability and have specialized skills and knowledge of their facility to uniquely qualify them to perform this work.  

This Notice of Intent is NOT a request for proposal NOR a solicitation of offers. Request for copies of this solicitation will not be honored unless the respondent provides evidence showing their capability to perform the required services.  Detailed capability statements must be submitted to Jennifer Dudek, Contract Specialist via e-mail at Jennifer.Dudek@nrc.gov no later than 4:00 PM ET on April 09, 2020 (i.e. 7 calendar days from the date this announcement was posted).