WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting a market survey for a potential follow-on contract to supply static uninterruptible power supply units (UPS) and associated components supporting critical National Air Space (NAS) electronic systems and facilities.
The requirement, managed by the FAA Air Traffic Organization Power Services Group, seeks commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and non-developmental item uninterruptible power systems ranging from 10 kVA to 550 kVA, along with batteries, monitoring, logistics support, and training. The effort is expected to result in a 10-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract consisting of a two-year base period and four two-year option periods. The period of performance is subject to change at the agency’s discretion.
The FAA said the systems must provide regulated three-phase AC power and maintain continuous output during loss of utility or generator input by drawing on battery energy storage. The UPS units must include dual inputs, static bypass, inverters and converters, filtering, internal automatic transfer capability, and synchronization controls.
Related: FAA seeks industry feedback on tower simulation system enhancement program
The systems must be designed to operate with standby engine generators rated at a minimum of 1.5 times UPS capacity. When loaded between 30 percent and 80 percent, the UPS must not cause generator instability and must be capable of synchronizing to a generator while it is supporting an unloaded UPS system.
Battery backups
Battery options include valve-regulated lead acid, vented lead acid, and lithium-ion systems, each with associated racks or cabinets, disconnects, interconnecting cables, and hardware. Additional required elements include battery monitoring, external software monitoring interfaces, remote annunciation panels, manual maintenance bypass capability, load banks, supervisory control and data acquisition, and support for parallel-redundant and 2N configurations.
The systems must meet defined environmental and performance requirements, including operation from 0 to 40 degrees Celsius for the UPS unit, relative humidity from 5 to 95 percent non-condensing, and full performance up to 3,300 feet without de-rating. Vendors must provide de-rating data for operation up to 10,000 feet.
Related: FAA seeks industry feedback on tower simulation system enhancement program
Electrical input requirements include three-phase 208/120-volt and 480-volt configurations, input power factor not less than 0.90 between 30 percent and 80 percent load, and input current total harmonic distortion not exceeding 10 percent under specified source impedance conditions. Output voltage regulation must remain within plus or minus 1 percent for balanced loads and plus or minus 3 percent for fully unbalanced loads, with total harmonic distortion limited to 3 percent for linear loads and 5 percent for nonlinear loads.
Battery systems at end of service life must provide at least 15 minutes of backup at 100 percent rated load for units up to 150 kVA and at least eight minutes for units rated from 151 kVA to 550 kVA. Minimum AC-to-AC efficiency at rated conditions is 89 percent at full linear load.
Fault clearing needed
The specification also requires defined overload and fault-clearing performance. The inverter must sustain 300 percent of rated output current for one cycle, then current limit to 150 percent until the fault clears or the system transfers to bypass. While on bypass during an output fault, the UPS must support 10 times rated full-load current for a minimum of one second to enable downstream breaker selective coordination. Inverter sub-cycle fault current must reach at least 300 percent of normal full-load current.
The UPS systems must comply with UL 1778 safety requirements and reference applicable IEEE and NEMA standards, including IEEE 519 for harmonic control and IEEE 493 for reliability. The FAA requires a documented mean time between failures of at least 60,000 hours per module, calculated using MIL-STD-217 and IEEE 493-1990 methodologies.
The FAA listed Joseph Steward as the primary point of contact for this survey. They can be reached via email at [email protected]. Responses are due by 3 p.m. Eastern time on 26 May 2026. More information is available at https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/ec4f893a43e24969b646deb7cb5956f2/view.
