Power Generation

CPE provides engineering across the full spectrum of power generation - from baseload solid-fuel plants running at 90%+ capacity factor to natural gas peaking units that sit idle for months and need to start reliably on four hours’ notice. The common thread is fired equipment, steam generation, heat recovery, and emissions compliance. That is where CPE operates regardless of fuel, combustion technology, or duty cycle.

Solid-fuel power is where CPE has the deepest bench. The firm has designed, assessed, and optimized boilers firing biomass (wood waste, bark, agricultural residues, bagasse, rice hulls), coal, petroleum coke, and refuse-derived fuel across every major combustion platform: bubbling fluidized bed (BFB), circulating fluidized bed (CFB), vibrating grate and traveling grate stokers, and pulverized fuel systems (wall-fired and tangentially fired). Our scope covers combustion system design and optimization, fuel feed and metering, overfire air systems, grate and refractory design, sootblower optimization, and the full range of ash handling - bottom ash, fly ash, and bed material management.

Solid-fuel baseload plants are complex integrated systems. A single boiler connects to fuel handling, combustion air, flue gas treatment, steam generation, feedwater, and ash removal - and a problem in any one subsystem limits the whole plant. CPE models the boiler and all appurtenant systems as an integrated whole rather than looking at components in isolation. That is what allows us to identify real bottlenecks and recommend capital improvements that actually move capacity or efficiency, not just check a box.

CPE’s steam turbine work includes performance modeling across multiple load cases, extraction and backpressure turbine selection for cogeneration applications, steam path audits, and integration of turbine performance with boiler and condenser operations. We develop heat balance models that allow plant operators and owners to evaluate trade-offs between power output, process steam extraction, and fuel consumption at various operating points - critical for cogen plants that must balance electric generation with process steam demand.

For operating plants, CPE conducts combustion efficiency testing, heat loss surveys, steam trap assessments, insulation surveys, and full boiler performance evaluations. These assessments quantify where energy is being lost, rank corrective actions by cost-effectiveness, and provide the engineering basis for capital improvement decisions. For plants considering fuel switching, capacity upgrades, or compliance retrofits, CPE performs feasibility studies that model performance and estimate costs before the owner commits capital.