Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) is undergoing transformation and will have available contracts worth millions of dollars that minority and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned businesses can take advantage of.
After receiving Visionary Marketing Group’s “Diversity Champion Award” at the 11th Minority Business Summit in Baltimore on Feb. 18, W. Maurice Bridges, director of Supplier Diversity at BGE, said his organization will be spending millions of dollars in the next few years on contracts.
“If you look at our footprint, a large percentage of our customer-base are African Americans and people of color and as a result of that, part of that transformation is we are not satisfied with the amount of contracts that are being awarded to minority women and Service-Disabled Veterans,” Bridges said.
In 2009, BGE President Kenneth W. DeFontes renewed a commitment with the Public Service Commission.
“What that means is that 25 percent of all the goods and services, ultimately, we’d like to see awarded to people of color,” Bridges said, adding that the company has so far accomplished a goal of about 10.2 percent.
Mr. Bridges said there are lots of opportunities business can take advantage of as BGE moves from its current state to a future state, noting that there are additional contracts worth between the region of $75 and $100 million.
He said as part of transformation BGE was recently awarded a $200-million grant from the federal government for Smart Grid.
“So what this means is we are going to be a little bit more sophisticated,” Bridges said.
“We are going to be able to send you a text or email on your Iphone or your laptop so that you can make the adjustment at home for your temperature and for energy conservation.”
Bridges said BGE will be sending out a lot of Request For Proposals (RFPs) for business opportunities that include meter installation and energy audits at home.
“The other thing that we are doing at BGE is we are upgrading our complete infrastructure. So we are spending 75 to 80 million dollars per year for the next four to five years on underground construction. So you need to be focused very much on some of the contracts that may be awarded over the next several years,” Bridges said, adding that vegetation management is another very lucrative business opportunity.
“One of the things that we hope to do is, as we award some of the contracts, this is really about economic reciprocity and we’d like to create some of the economic development opportunities for our customer-base,” Bridges said.
“We give preference to Maryland-based firms, even though we are not restricted to that.”
Bridges said that the utility sector in particular promises opportunities with smart grid and that businesses should get in touch with organizations such as the Minority Supplier Development Council and the President’s Roundtable to learn more.
| Click here to listen to Mr. Bridges’ comments |
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