Put the School Construction Authority's spring electrification tabs side by side and a market shows up. Since May 4 the SCA has opened four jobs that pull fossil-fuel heat out of existing schools and put in electric systems, most of them heat pumps: PS 107 in Flushing, PS 134 in the Bronx, PS 250 in Williamsburg and PS 328 in East New York. They drew 55 bids from 22 different general contractors. The four apparent lows add up to $148,048,000. None of them is an award yet.

The tabs, in order. PS 107 Thomas A. Dooley, May 4 (26-22265D): 12 bids, P&K Contracting low at $38,300,000, Roma Scaffolding second by $11,000. PS 134 George F. Bristow, May 21 (26-22873D): 17 bids, KG Construction Services low at $35,333,000, Skyline Industries second by $67,000. PS 250 George H. Lindsay, June 11 (26-23291D): 12 bids, KG low again at $35,555,000, Whitestone Construction second by $470,000. PS 328 Phyllis Wheatley, June 16 (26-22890D): 14 bids, Venus Group low at $38,860,000, Dynamic US second by $2,860,000. That is how tight this work has become. The low-to-second gaps run 0.03%, 0.19%, 1.3% and 7.4%. Low-to-high spreads run 28.2%, 28.3%, 17.6% and 48.7%. Three of the four jobs were settled by less than half a million dollars. PS 328 is the outlier in both directions: the widest gap and the widest spread of the four.

The full PS 250 field: KG at $35,555,000; Whitestone at $36,025,000; Roma Scaffolding at $36,139,000; Northeast Restoration at $36,900,000; Ashnu International at $37,111,919; Nehal Contracting at $37,264,000; Neelam Construction at $37,269,000; ANSU Construction at $37,843,000; Adam's European Contracting at $38,038,000; National Environmental Safety Company at $39,222,000; Infinity Contracting Services at $39,552,000; and ABC Construction Contracting high at $41,800,000. The SCA's scope line there covers electrification and heat pump systems, fire alarm systems, roofs, and electrical and lighting upgrades at 108 Montrose Avenue.

Five firms bid all four: Adam's European Contracting, KG Construction Services, Northeast Restoration, Whitestone Construction and ABC Construction Contracting. Their finishes say nobody owns this program. KG went 6th, 1st, 1st and then 12th of 14 at PS 328, where its $51,225,000 was 31.8% above Venus. Whitestone went 8th, 7th, 2nd and 8th. Adam's European went 5th, 14th, 9th and 7th. ABC was high at PS 134 and PS 250. P&K, Roma, Venus, National Environmental Safety, Kel-Tech, Neelam, Infinity and ANSU each bid three. Seven firms showed up only once. The subcontractor lists show the same pattern underneath. Each tab names the low bidder's plumbing, HVAC and electrical subs, the trades New York's Wicks Law requires a bidder to name. MAR-SAL Plumbing & Heating was the named plumber on three of the four, twice under KG and once under Venus. Rodel Electrical Contractors was KG's electrician both times. The HVAC slot, the heart of a heat pump job, went to a different firm every time: Central Mechanical Systems under P&K, Airtone under KG at PS 134, ACS System Associates under KG at PS 250 and R.A.M.S. Mechanical under Venus.

The money behind it goes back to October 2022, when the city announced a $4 billion plan to make every new school all-electric and to complete or start converting 100 existing schools to all-electric heat by 2030, with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services helping fund the work and the effort tied to Local Law 97's emissions targets. The SCA's own capital data tags two of these four, PS 107 and PS 250, as DCAS electrification projects. The SCA's amended five-year plan, noticed in February, carries $1.4 billion for electrification of existing buildings and another $350 million for heating plant upgrades where electrification is not the right fit.

Why this matters. A program that repeats one scope school after school teaches the market to price it, and these tabs show it happening in real time. When half a percent decides a $35 million job, the winner is whoever carried the sharpest mechanical and electrical numbers into bid day. That makes the named HVAC and electrical subs the pivot of every one of these jobs, and it makes each building's existing conditions, not the heat pump itself, the thing that separates the field, as PS 328 showed.

What to do next. Mechanical and electrical subs: get your numbers in front of more than one of the regulars, because the low changed hands on three of four jobs. Suppliers of heat pumps, controls, switchgear and lighting: the named HVAC and electrical firms on each tab are where the orders start. Everyone else prices to the apparent lows and waits for awards, and watches the SCA's bid schedule for the next electrification openings. Board items: RFI-000392 (PS 250), RFI-000514 (PS 107), RFI-000463 (PS 134) and RFI-000381 (PS 328).

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: The SCA's bid tabulations now mark all four apparent low bidders as awarded: P&K Contracting at PS 107, KG Construction Services at PS 134 and PS 250, and Venus Group at PS 328.