Selling to Western

To do business with Western and other Federal agencies, contractors must register with System for Award Management, or SAM. Use the SAM user guide to collect the information needed to register.

Vendors must also certify their socioeconomic status with Online Representations and Certifications Application. ORCA replaces the paper-based Representations and Certifications process. It is only necessary to register once for all your Government business. A vendor’s ORCA record can then be accessed by any government agency receiving a bid from the vendor.

Finally, review the important notice at the bottom of this page to learn about upcoming changes to the way the Department of Energy and Western will be doing business in the near future.

Information on Western solicitations greater than $25,000 is available at FedBizOpps. Also, solicitation summaries can be found at FedBizOpps. Contractors registered with FEDBizOpps can receive automated e-mail notices of solicitations of interest.

Since businesses can access solicitation information posted at on FBO , Western no longer maintains a “bidders list.” Contracting officers may provide hard copies of drawings or specifications upon request. Check the solicitation or FEDBizOpps summary to find out how to obtain copies.

FBO also posts information on recent contract awards over $25,000. Award summaries can also be found on the Federal Procurement Data System which provides a searchable database of active contract awards.

Follow the instruction in the solicitation for submitting your bids or proposals.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: DOE, including the Western Area Power Administration, began implementing the Strategic Integrated Procurement Enterprise System, or STRIPES, at various DOE field offices in 2008. Western will begin using the STRIPES system sometime in Fiscal Year 2012. DOE offices using the STRIPES system post their requirements on the FedConnect Internet portal in lieu of the DOE e-center. Therefore, in order to do business with DOE (and Western) after this transition is completed, all DOE vendors should be registered with Compusearch’s FedConnect portal.

Notices and solicitations, required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, will continue to be sent to FedBizOpps, with additional information available to interested entities on FedConnect. Similarly, financial opportunity announcements that must be published on Grants.gov will continue to be transmitted to FBO also, with additional information provided at the FedConnect portal. The FedConnect portal will be used throughout the lifecycle of DOE’s acquisition and financial assistance instruments from the presolicitation/planning phase to instrument close-out. DOE's STRIPES system will communicate with external entities via FedConnect on matters related to acquisition or financial solicitation or award actions.

We are advising current and potential contractors and financial assistance recipients to register with FedConnect at: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/.  Although FedConnect is used by multiple federal agencies, it is hosted by Compusearch, Inc., not DOE. Assistance with the FedConnect portal is provided by Compusearch. Contact information is provided on the FedConnect Web site.

In addition, we recommend that all organizations that want to do business with DOE register with SAM. In general, the system functionality of FedConnect requires that all organization be registered with SAM, before registering with FedConnect. DOE is promoting this approach, to make communications with organizations they are doing business with more integrated, faster and auditable.

However, if your organization is not required by acquisition and/or financial assistance regulations to be registered SAM and SAM registration is not practicable, contact the DOE's Help Desk at 800-683-0751 for assistance with FedConnect registration. Additional information or comments regarding this matter may be submitted via email to STRIPES@hq.doe.gov.