What to look for when you need reliable Materials Procurement support
Post Outline
Your electrical substation EPC provider must know your business.
- How do you determine if procurement professionals know their stuff?
- Present them the goal you’re trying to achieve, rather than suggesting specific product solutions.
A true substation procurement partner puts solutions before sales.
- If you have a specific problem, they’ll ask questions before making recommendations.
- A true partner is the substation equivalent of a Design Build Contractor.
A seasoned substation materials procurement professional analyzes.
- They should be able to work from your drawings — rough or finished — OR from your general descriptions of the issues.
An effective electrical substation equipment solutions professional thinks.
- Not every solution comes off the shelf. Particularly when a fabricator is involved.
- Our materials procurement specialist offers a real-life example!
A smart substation materials procurement provider listens.
- Sometimes you know exactly what you need, and don’t need input.
- A good partner will have the sense to understand that. Without being told twice.
A committed substation materials procurement partner responds.
- If they’re not willing to consistently take your calls, what good are they?
The best substation EPC providers know the supply chain.
- This is where procurement partners can be worth their weight in gold.
- Our materials procurement specialist offers another real-life example!
A committed substation materials procurement partner cares.
- It’s pretty simple: They should treat you the way they’d want to be treated themselves!
Who cares about your EPC needs? We do.
If you’re looking for a materials procurement partner who’ll look-out for your best interests, every time, call us. Any time.
Jason Harris — 205-807-0414 | jharris@peaksubstation.com
Full Post
The electrical substation industry’s major players, from engineering and construction firms to the utilities themselves, are increasingly turning to EPC teams for fast, dependable and cost-effective solutions — for a host of reasons; not the least of which is the ever-increasing market demand for dependable, cost-effective power. In a July, 2024 report, the International Energy Agency projected that “growth in demand in 2024 and 2025 [will] be among the highest levels in the past two decades.” And with that growing demand comes an increasing reliance on procurement providers’ insights, expertise and willingness to go above-and-beyond in delivering.
Your electrical substation EPC provider must know your business.
Unlike your garden-variety product distributors and packagers, who exist largely to fill orders to the specifications you provide, your substation materials procurement partner should understand an entire substation operation — from concept to completion and beyond, from the proverbial Big Picture to the smallest and seemingly insignificant detail. After all, as any maintenance supervisor can tell you, there is no such thing as insignificant detail when it comes to keeping a substation running efficiently and dependably at all times.
So how can you determine if a procurement professional knows his or her stuff? One way would be to present the overall goal you’re trying to achieve, rather than leading with the specific product solutions you think will meet that goal. For that matter, it may be that you don’t know the specific product solution to achieve your objectives. Either way, an experienced EPC procurement professional will have enough substation knowledge to ask the kinds of questions that help lead you to a plausible solution — coupled with the communication skills to offer clear, compelling explanations for his or her recommendations.
A true substation procurement partner puts solutions before sales.
If you’re calling-on an EPC provider with a specific problem, three words you should expect to hear are “Have you tried…” Why? It demonstrates not just a potentially strong background of hands-on experience, but a basic interest in determining whether or not your problems can be fixed before you make an unnecessary purchase. That’s the kind of materials procurement professional who’s committed to serving your needs as a solutions partner — and not just a vendor looking to generate sales.
Ideally, a materials procurement partner serves your needs as the substation equivalent of a Design Build Contractor, offering (to take the analogy a step further) the kinds of sensible equipment and design alternatives that can achieve an architect’s vision more cost-effectively without compromising form or function.
A seasoned substation materials procurement professional analyzes.
An experienced materials procurement professional should be able to take your engineering drawings, rough or finished, and figure out all the parts and pieces needed to solve your problems. “I get people sending me drawings all the time,” says Peak’s materials procurement specialist Jason Harris, “and they don’t know exactly what they need. Sometimes it’s just a rough description. So we’ll analyze their drawings, or discuss the rough description they sent us, and put together grocery lists for them. We do that a lot for smaller orders — like fence grounding or minor additions.”
An effective electrical substation equipment solutions professional thinks.
Here’s a typical example of how Jason puts his electrical substation experience and his creative skills to work in delivering equipment solutions:
A couple months ago, a contractor working with a leading clean energy company called me, and said they needed eight 18-inch channels. It’s not really anything special, but it is a rare piece of steel. This guy’s company owns America’s largest electric utility. They sell more power than any other utility, and they told him they couldn’t get their fabricator to deliver it in less than a month.
So I called our primary fabricator and explained what I needed. Our fabricator said he didn’t have the size they needed, so I asked him, Couldn’t you take a full size channel, and cut it into eight pieces? Well, he said, I hadn’t thought about that! So that’s what we did. And if I don’t miss my guess, I’ll bet the utility’s fabricator hadn’t thought about doing that either.
A smart substation materials procurement provider listens.
The best EPC providers know when to keep their opinions and recommendations to themselves, for the very reasons stated above. Because sometimes you know exactly what you need, and a genuinely committed procurement partner will have the good sense to understand that without being told twice. Or three times. Or four. You get the picture. (And so should they!)
A committed substation materials procurement partner responds.
All the electrical substation experience and expertise in the world mean nothing if your EPC materials procurement partner isn’t willing to answer when you call, or reply promptly to your emails. “When a guy from a substation contractor is in the field and says he needs something,” says Jason, “there’s a good chance he’s standing in mud. And he needs that something right now. Not in a couple of weeks. NOW. That’s why we do whatever it takes. Here’s another thing: A lot of times, customers don’t even ask me for a price, because they know we’re going to treat them fairly. That’s why it’s called a relationship.”
The best substation EPC providers know the supply chain.
Even if you’re on your very first day as an electrical substation engineer, contractor or utility employee, you probably already know that the industry’s equipment and materials supply chain is a worldwide nightmare — with lead times for hard-to-get items routinely exceeding 15 months. And this is where a good materials procurement professional can be worth his weight in gold.
Another story from Peak’s materials procurement specialist.
I recently got a call late one week, says Jason, from a contractor who was working on a substation project in Texas. The person in their group ordering materials had neglected to order electrical fittings. That’s a huge problem for any project, and it’s especially problematic now because connectors are extremely difficult to get in short order.
So here they are with an entire project on hold because they don’t have connectors. They called me because they knew my record for solving problems. One advantage I offer them is really good relationships with a lot of manufacturers.
Connectors are not a commodity product. There are levels of quality, so you can’t just buy them from anybody. Fortunately, I have a great relationship with one manufacturer who makes high-quality connectors — and I was able to place an order with them for for $121,806. They quoted me a delivery time of 6 weeks. I convinced them my customer needed everything by Monday.
The contractor was so desperate for quick delivery, they were willing to pay FedEx $15,000 to deliver them. Well, I found a hotshot driver in Washington who picked up the load Friday afternoon, and had it delivered to the job site by early Monday morning — at a fraction of what FedEx was going to charge.
One of the guys told me, after I’d already arranged for the Monday morning delivery, that if I could get them their connectors by the following Friday, there would be a hunting trip in it for me. So yep, I’ll be going hunting with them next fall!
And here’s the point of that story. It wasn’t just understanding exactly what kind of product they needed, it was knowing who could deliver it, and in the time frame they needed it. And you know what the manufacturer told me? He wouldn’t have done that for just anyone. That’s just one example of why good relationships are so important. We’ve always treated that manufacturer right, so they were willing to go out of their way for us.
A committed substation materials procurement partner cares.
“Our philosophy is so simple and obvious,” Jason concludes. “It’s the Golden Rule. What’s amazing to me is how few people in this business follow that rule.”
Who cares about your substation EPC needs? We do.
If you’re looking for a materials procurement partner who’ll look-out for your best interests, every time, call us. Any time.
Jason Harris — 205-807-0414 | jharris@peaksubstation.com