PUB recommends up to $22 million contract with Northstar Energy Solutions for substation construction

The Public Utility Board on March 24 recommended a contract with Northstar Energy Solutions LLC to provide substation construction services for multiple projects in DME's capital improvement program, with a contract amount not to exceed $22,000,000.

Mark Zimmer, DME engineering, said DME issued an RFP and received seven bids evaluated on safety, quality, schedule and price. “Northstar Energy Solutions was evaluated the highest overall value to the city,” Zimmer said, and DME recommended awarding the contract to Northstar for foundation work, conduit and steel erection, and bus installation across several projects shown in the presentation.

Board members asked about safety scoring and past performance. Zimmer said bidders submit a safety plan with their proposal and that the Hickory GIS Substation was constructed by Beta Engineering while prior substations were constructed by Northstar. A board member asked whether Northstar is part of a larger firm; Zimmer responded that Northstar “used to be a camper” and “they're part of Quanta,” indicating corporate affiliations discussed in the meeting.

Laurie Hill, purchasing manager, explained the safety evaluation: bidders include safety records and plans in their proposals and evaluators assign scores based on those submissions. The board discussed recoverability of transmission costs for project components; staff noted transmission portions are recoverable via TCOS while some distribution elements are not and said they would follow up with the exact recoverable totals.

A motion to award the contract to Northstar for substation construction services in an amount not to exceed $22,000,000 was made and the chair announced the motion passed unanimously.