Solicitation
657A5-26-111, Triennial Electrical Testing
Department of Veterans Affairs
AI summaryThe VA's Network Contracting Office 15 wants a contractor to do three-yearly electrical testing, inspection and maintenance of the power distribution system at the Marion VA Medical Center in Marion, Illinois. It is a construction-type solicitation set aside for certified service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, with a government estimate of $500,000 to $1,000,000. The award goes to the lowest price among offers that pass the technical review. More in the summary
AI summary Beta
Summary of the version posted Oct 9, 2026. The notice was amended Oct 30, 2026. Check what else changed on SAM.gov. The notice looks incomplete: Bid bond amount and other details of the missing middle of the solicitation (the text of Factors 2 to 5 instructions, basis for award, price proposal format and Appendix 1 were left out of what was provided). Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
The VA's Network Contracting Office 15 wants a contractor to do three-yearly electrical testing, inspection and maintenance of the power distribution system at the Marion VA Medical Center in Marion, Illinois. It is a construction-type solicitation set aside for certified service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, with a government estimate of $500,000 to $1,000,000. The award goes to the lowest price among offers that pass the technical review.
Who can bid (10)
- Service-disabled veteran-owned small business, certified in SBA's VetCert and registered in SAM.gov from the proposal due date through award; joint ventures must be certified too
- Set aside for SDVOSBs
- Only SDVOSB joint ventures are accepted as teaming arrangements
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- Limits on subcontracting: prime must perform at least 15% of the project labor on site with its own or other eligible SDVOSB employees
- Bid guarantee (bid bond) submitted with the offer
- Technicians certified by NETA, NICET or an equivalent, with OSHA 10-hour construction safety training; supervising field engineer certified by NICET or NETA (or an electrical engineering degree) with 5 years of similar testing experience
- Qualified workers are licensed journeyman or master electricians; electrical safety training (NFPA 70E, OSHA 1910 Subpart S) certificates for each technician before award
- At least five continuous years of experience testing electrical distribution systems in healthcare, industrial, educational and commercial facilities
- Employees must pass an FBI fingerprint check for a VA security badge, and show negative tuberculosis screening within 90 days before assignment
- Current calibration of all test instruments and PPE documented before work starts; VETS-4212 report filed for the preceding fiscal year
How to submit: Email to maria.hoover@va.gov and kevin.mahoney3@va.gov, then confirm with the contracting officer that the email arrived; bid bond must also be mailed in hard copy to VA NCO 15, 3450 S 4th Street Trafficway, Leavenworth KS 66048, due November 9, 2026, 3:00 PM Central (15:00 CST); questions are due by 3:00 PM CDT, October 23, 2026. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (10)
- Serious: Bid bond required. You must email a bid bond with the offer and also mail a hard copy by the due date; many small firms need a surety lined up in advance.
- Serious: Strict SDVOSB-only plus subcontracting limits. Only VetCert-certified SDVOSBs (or SDVOSB joint ventures) qualify, and you must keep at least 15% of the on-site labor in-house, which limits how much you can hand to a specialty testing firm.
- Serious: Heavy experience screen for the prime and the electrical sub. You need two to three completed contracts of $500,000 or more in similar hospital-type electrical testing, and the proposal is rejected if it falls short of any pass/fail factor.
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- Serious: Certified testing staff required. Supervisors and technicians must hold NETA or NICET (or equivalent) certifications and licensed electrician status, and certificates go in the proposal.
- Worth checking: Conflicting performance period. The cover page and SOW section 2 say 90 calendar days, but the scheduling section says the work will take 150 calendar days, so the real schedule is unclear.
- Worth checking: Outage and hospital work constraints. Work happens off-hours around a live hospital, with outages limited to 4 hours at a time, 14 days' scheduling lead time and infection-control rules, which raises labor cost.
- Worth checking: 4-hour facility power outage test with utility costs. You must join the hospital-wide 4-hour test and price the local utility company's services for it into your bid, a cost that is hard to estimate.
- Worth checking: Equipment counts are only estimates. You must verify quantities yourself, and missing the site visit means no price increase for unforeseen conditions.
- Worth checking: Wage rules unclear. The package includes a Davis-Bacon wage determination, but the SOW also cites the Service Contract Act, so check which wage rules apply before pricing.
- Minor: Set-aside label differs from the solicitation. The SAM.gov listing calls this an SDVOSB sole source, but the solicitation describes a competitive LPTA set-aside, so confirm with the contracting officer.
Read from the notice and 1 attachment. Show which files.
- 36C25526R0186.pdf (read)
Full summary
What they want
- Test, inspect and maintain the hospital's electrical power distribution system to NETA MTS-2019 standards (about 350 panels/switchgear, 290 breakers over 200 amps, 6 generators, 25 automatic transfer switches, 100 transformers, 200 fused switches, 13 medium-voltage units, 6 UPS units)
- Take part in the 4-hour Essential Electrical System power outage test, including paying the local utility's costs for the test
- Run an infrared (thermographic) survey of energized equipment and fix or tighten problem connections
- Test medium-voltage cable without hi-pot (for example VLF tan delta) and sample and test oil in VA-owned liquid-filled transformers and oil switches
- Photograph each component before and after work, and do random quality-control re-checks (5% phasing, 10% reconnection)
- Inventory the electrical system in an Excel-type table, mark up one-line drawings in red, and give a budgetary replacement assessment for inefficient low-voltage transformers
- Deliver digital test reports within 7 days and infrared reports within 14 days, plus four hard copies after acceptance and daily raw data sheets
- Do outages after normal hours (nights and weekends) with the VA operating the switches while the contractor handles PPE, access and testing
- Contract type
- Construction contract with one lump-sum line item (quantity 1 job); the pricing type clause (52.216-1) is listed but its text was not in the part of the solicitation provided
- Period of performance
- 90 calendar days from Notice to Proceed per the cover page and the SOW period-of-performance paragraph; another SOW section says 150 calendar days (conflict)
- Place of performance
- Marion VA Medical Center, 2401 W. Main St., Marion, Illinois
- Estimated value
- Between $500,000 and $1,000,000 (construction magnitude estimate)
- How they'll choose
- Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA): lowest evaluated price among proposals that meet the acceptability standards on the non-price factors; award intended without discussions
- Offers due
- November 9, 2026, 3:00 PM Central (15:00 CST); questions are due by 3:00 PM CDT, October 23, 2026 (from the version posted Oct 9, 2026; amended since)
- How to submit
- Email to maria.hoover@va.gov and kevin.mahoney3@va.gov, then confirm with the contracting officer that the email arrived; bid bond must also be mailed in hard copy to VA NCO 15, 3450 S 4th Street Trafficway, Leavenworth KS 66048
What they'll judge offers on
- Relevant Past Performance of Prime Contractor (2 to 3 completed contracts, each $500,000 or more, hospital or medical facility, within 5 years, satisfactory or better)
- Technical Construction and Electrical Testing Experience of Prime Contractor (2 to 3 projects under NAICS 238210, $500,000 or more, similar electrical testing work)
- Technical Construction Experience of the Electrical Subcontractor
- Technical Qualifications of Proposed Staffing / Key Personnel
- Prime Contractor Safety Plan
What to include when you submit
- Email three files marked ORIGINAL - RESPONSE TO RFP - 36C25526R0186
- Volume 1: Technical Proposal plus VAAR 852.219-75 Notice of Limitations on Subcontracting
- Volume 2: Price Proposal with the signed SF 1442 (blocks 10 and 14 through 20 filled in), acknowledgment of all amendments, and Appendix 1
- Volume 3: Bid Bond (offer guarantee); a missing or improper bond is cause for rejection
- Past performance and experience write-ups need contract name and number, agency, award and completion dates and dollar amounts, scope, self-performed labor percentage, and a point of contact
- Include names, certifications and qualifications of the supervising field engineer, technicians, and the site safety and health officer/competent person, plus sample test sheets, a proposed schedule and a quality control plan with safety procedures
- Joint ventures must submit a copy of the JV agreement with the proposal
- Site visit is October 20, 2026 at 10:45 AM CT in Bldg. 15 at the Marion VA Medical Center
Not in the notice text
- Bid bond amount and other details of the missing middle of the solicitation (the text of Factors 2 to 5 instructions, basis for award, price proposal format and Appendix 1 were left out of what was provided)
- Which period of performance is correct: 90 or 150 calendar days
- Whether the Davis-Bacon wage determination or Service Contract Act rates apply
- Pricing type (the contract type clause text was not provided) and how monthly progress payments will work
- Incumbent or who did the prior triennial electrical survey (not named)
- Full inventory and one-line drawings, which the VA says it will furnish
Eligibility and how to respond
- SAM.gov lists this with an SDVOSB sole-source set-aside code, but the notice asks for offers by Nov 9, 2026. Ask the contracting officer who may submit an offer. More open service-disabled veteran-owned set-asides under NAICS 238210
- How to submit, from the AI summary: Email to maria.hoover@va.gov and kevin.mahoney3@va.gov, then confirm with the contracting officer that the email arrived; bid bond must also be mailed in hard copy to VA NCO 15, 3450 S 4th Street Trafficway, Leavenworth KS 66048. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
- SAM.gov has no description for this notice beyond its title. The work is described in its attachments, listed under Notice details.
- Construction contracts over $2,000 pay at least the local Davis-Bacon wage rates, from the wage determination in the solicitation. Price your labor from it: How to price a government contract, and how Davis-Bacon differs from the Service Contract Act.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 30, 2026
- Notice type
- Solicitation
- Office
- 255-Network Contract Office 15 (36C255), Leavenworth, KS
- Product/service code
- Z1NZ · Maintenance of Other Utilities
- Business type
- Construction & renovation (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 238210)
- Versions
2 versions have been posted, newest first.
- Oct 30, 2026 · Amendment 0001 (this version)Due Nov 9, 2026
- Oct 9, 2026 · SolicitationDue Nov 9, 2026
- Attachments
Past awards and competition
Who has won work like this before, the likely incumbent, and what similar contracts paid, from USAspending.gov.
Before you respond
- How to respond to a solicitation (8 steps)
- How to read a government solicitation
- How to price a government contract
- Open SDVOSB set-aside contracts
Terms on this notice: Solicitation, SDVOSB (service-disabled veteran-owned small business), Set-aside
Full notice text from SAM.gov
657A5-26-111, Triennial Electrical Testing
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