Seismic Resilience of Large Power Transformers Tender - 119879231

Procurement Summary

Country: USA

Summary: Seismic Resilience of Large Power Transformers: Shake Table Test

Deadline: 01 Jun 2026

Posting Date: 28 May 2025

Other Information

Notice Type: Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 119879231

Document Ref. No.: INL-25-011

Competition: ICB

Financier: Self Financed

Purchaser Ownership: Public

Tender Value: Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Name: Login to see tender_details

Address: Login to see tender_details

Email: Login to see tender_details

Login to see details

Tender Details

Description
INTRODUCTION
Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA) Management & Operating Contractor of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) owned Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is seeking an Expression of Interest (EOI) from industry providers to provide information regarding solutions aimed at increasing the seismic resilience of large power transformers.
BACKGROUND
The flexibility and density of massive power transformer tanks can cause them to act as a vibration amplifier for equipment mounted on them. During an earthquake, the transformer tank and mounted bushings can be in resonance, increasing the shaking in the bushing beyond its design levels and resulting in bushing failure. As seen in past earthquakes around the world, this seismic vulnerability can concurrently damage many transformers and cause cascading failures on the grid. INL is currently working to address this vulnerability by developing a low-cost retrofittable bushing decoupler system. The system will be designed with modern materials, mounted at the bushing base, and can be tuned to any bushing-transformer combination to avoid resonance.
As a part of this effort, INL is performing large-scale shake table testing of a fully dressed 230 kV power transformer at the University of California San Diego Large High Performance Outdoor Shake Table (LHPOST) facility. In addition to this first-of-a-kind bushing decoupler system, INL will also test another mitigation option called seismic base isolation, which involves placing the transformer on isolator devices that absorb the incoming earthquake energy and alter the system structural dynamics to protect the transformer. A few units have been installed this way; however, full scale experimental testing on a fully dressed power transformer is lacking. The bushing decoupler technique is the focus of this project, which aims to perform a shake table test of a large power transformer in its substation installation configuration.
INL is...
Active Contract Opportunity

Notice ID : INL-25-011

Related Notice

Department/Ind. Agency : ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF

Sub-tier : ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF

Office: BATTELLE ENERGY ALLIANCE–DOE CNTR

General Information

Contract Opportunity Type: Sources Sought (Original)

Original Published Date: May 27, 2025 02:30 pm MDT

Original Response Date: Jun 01, 2026 12:00 am MDT

Inactive Policy: 15 days after response date

Original Inactive Date: Jun 16, 2026

Initiative: None
Classification

Original Set Aside:

Product Service Code:

NAICS Code: 335311 - Power, Distribution, and Specialty Transformer Manufacturing
Place of Performance: San Diego, CA 92119 USA

Documents

 Tender Notice

INL-25-011-Shake-Table-Test-EOI.pdf