
For the past few years, the Petersburg Borough has been working to bolster its fleet of diesel generators to be better prepared for power outages when the hydropower system fails. On Monday, the Borough Assembly took one step closer by awarding a contract to GD Partners to manufacture a new generator part for up to $274,000. The part is crucial for Petersburg’s in-progress Scow Bay diesel generation project.
The borough already bought the new diesel generator and is storing it in Texas right now. But for the generator to work properly, it needs another part, called a step-up transformer. Petersburg Utility Director Karl Hagerman said the transformer will bridge the power generation gap between the new generator and the current system.
“We need to ramp up the voltage from the generator in order to use that voltage and power output in Petersburg,” Hagerman said. “So it’s a very important piece of the puzzle.”
The borough received bids from 10 different companies, all vying to build the transformer. Hagerman was surprised by the amount of interest. But some bids didn’t quite match what they had asked for. Eventually, Hagerman and his team landed on GD Partners, a U.S. company that manufactures in India.
“GD Partners very much did their homework and gave us the feeling that they absolutely want to work with us to provide this piece of equipment,” he said.
The bid from GD Partners was about half as cheap as the other top candidates. The company included a five-year warranty and also won’t charge the borough until the transformer arrives in Petersburg. The Borough Assembly unanimously approved the contract with a 4-0 vote. Hagerman said he hopes the diesel project will be complete within the next year.