Over the past few weeks, the number of contract awards for electrical and VDV equipment financed in part through the American Resource and Recovery Act (ARRA) seems to have increased, according to information at www.fedbizopps.gov, the U.S. government website that tracks federal project activity related to ARRA funding. Lighting switchgear upgrades and installations or retrofits to backup power systems at Veterans Administration hospitals, federal courthouses and other offices, national recreation areas and dams and military facilities continue to top the list of contract awards of interest to electrical manufacturers, electrical distributors, electrical contractors and independent manufacturers' reps.
One interesting twist to the federal contract game in recent weeks has been the size of winning bids for the installation of advanced metering systems from Schneider Electric and its Square D subsidiary, both of Palatine, Ill. Since early May, the companies have won more than $6 million in ARRA-funded work at naval facilities in Georgia and California, as well as the Reagan Federal Building/Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., and the Nealon Federal Building in Scranton, Pa. In addition, an April 23 article in the Dallas Business Journal said Schneider Electric had won “two stimulus-related contracts totaling $41.5 million to increase the energy and water efficiency of city-owned buildings in Houston and other federal buildings throughout Texas.”
Late last year Schneider Electric announced that it had won a $24.9 million contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for “the design and installation of an integrated, advanced metering system to read, analyze and accumulate energy data at nearly 1,000 buildings across 169 VA sites.” The metering systems will include the company's Square D PowerLogic and PowerLogic ION equipment.
In addition to these installations of Schneider Electric's advanced metering equipment, West Virginia Electric Supply Co., Huntington, W. Va., won a $122,342 contract for the Square D metering equipment that will be installed in the Huntington Federal Building , Huntington, W. Va. The distributor was awarded that business through Square D's GSA Advantage contract GS-07F-9462G. More than 400 Square D distributors are authorized to use this contract, which is a General Service Administration (GSA) purchasing program intended to offer all federal agencies access to pre-negotiated, contract prices for goods and services.
There would appear to be plenty of federal ARRA money still available. According to www.recovery.gov, only $112 billion of the $275 billion in funds allotted for contracts, grants and loans (approximately 41 percent) have been paid out.