Conventional Power

In 1957, we designed the first utility combined cycle application in the U.S. at the Rio Pecos Power Plant in Texas. Since then, we have participated in a wide range of first-of-a-kind combined cycle projects, including:

• The design of the first fully integrated commercial-scale coal gasification combined-cycle repowering at Wabash River Generating Station. This design earned the Engineering Excellence Grand Award from the American Consulting Engineers Council in 1995.
• The first H-class technology using General Electric’s 50 hertz (hz), 109H gas turbine in a 1x1x1 configuration at Baglan Bay Power Station, which earned Power Engineering’s Power Plant of the Year award in 2003.
• Front-end engineering and design (FEED) and conceptual design studies for integrating carbon capture on combined cycle plants for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Serving as owner’s engineer for a hydrogen co-firing demonstration plant in conjunction with New York Power Authority, Electric Power Research Institute, and General Electric.
• Serving as engineer for one of the largest combined cycles in the world at 4,000 MW at Qurayyah IPP, which was named Top Gas-Fired Power Plant of the Year by POWER Magazine.

Our expertise encompasses a broad range of cycles and fuels and spans virtually every technology, including today’s most advanced machines. Project developers around the globe rely on our proven experience to deliver quality, low-cost, reliable designs and meet our commitments to tight schedules and budgets.

With certain segments of the power and energy markets in need of fast-responding, flexible, and efficient capacity, today’s facility owners are increasingly incorporating RICE technology as a prominent component of their generation portfolios. Our global expertise is enhanced by extensive detailed design, owner’s engineering, due diligence consulting, and betterment and modification assignments. These projects have encompassed a wide range of plant sizes, vintages, technologies, fuels, and operating regimes, as well as numerous major original equipment manufacturers of reciprocating engines.

Our RICE project experience extends from single-engine black start generators to the detailed design of multi-engine plants, including gas-fired, liquid fuel, and dual-fuel installations, across diverse applications and locations.

Our primary focus throughout our history has been on the power industry, with experience in both new design and retrofit work. We have a thorough understanding of how power plants work and the critical considerations for designing and completing projects at an operating facility. Our engineers and designers are skilled in seamlessly integrating modifications to existing systems with minimal disruption and cost. We have the expertise to address plant areas with limited space and the ability to accommodate short-duration outages.

To complement our plant betterment and retrofit, we also have in-house laser scanning, drones, and state-of-the-art 3D modeling capabilities.

Our experience encompasses:

Employing the full range of our project execution expertise, our environmental and permitting professionals guide clients through the regulatory compliance decision-making process to develop a reliable and cost-effective plan for plant conversion. Our in-house boiler and combustion specialists assess the impacts relative to heat rate, predicted emissions levels, boiler capacity, changes in pressure excursion, and hazardous area considerations per current National Fire Protection Association code requirements.

As an industry leader in coal-fired power plants and air quality control systems (AQCS) engineering, we completely and effectively evaluate gas-firing impacts and required modifications to the AQCS and material handling systems, including:

• Operational impacts and system capabilities for selective catalytic reduction systems (i.e., ammonia injection turn-down).
• Operational impacts for electrostatic precipitators (e.g., spark rate, collection efficiency with higher-moisture flue gas).
• Operational impacts to the flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system and all subsystems.
• Impacts of natural gas firing on flue gas temperatures and any subsequent impacts to FGD material reliability or slurry composition.
• Impacts of co-firing and corresponding reduced loads for coal handling, limestone and gypsum handling, bottom ash, and fly ash systems. 
• Updated technical controls narrative of existing equipment for natural gas impacts.

We use our vast experience in energy and industrial engineering to provide consulting services for industrial utility systems including plant development, strategic planning, conceptual design, front-end engineering and design (FEED)/front-end loading (FEL) studies, detailed design, and operational and maintenance engineering support needs. Our engineers provide utility solutions for industrial facilities to support reliable, efficient, and environmentally compliant operation. We integrate our understanding of the industrial market with our extensive knowledge of plant design and operation to develop cost-effective utility systems for both individual plants and entire fleets.

These industrial utility solutions include:

• On-site/behind-the-meter power generation and combined heat and power (CHP) facilities boilers, combustion turbines, reciprocating engines, renewables, and energy storage.
• Fuel conversion for all types of generation, including coal-to-natural gas, hydrogen blending, liquified natural gas, and biofuels.
• Steam supply using packaged boilers.
• Electrical reliability, including short circuit analysis, grounding, and lightning protection.
• Winterization.
• Environmental compliance for new and existing facilities, air quality control systems, decarbonization (pre/post-process carbon capture), water and wastewater treatment, and geotechnical and subsurface analysis.

CHP, also known as cogeneration, is an efficient and sustainable approach to generate electricity and thermal energy simultaneously. The integration of CHP with renewable energy sources, such as biomass or biogas, can further enhance its environmental benefits and support a transition toward a low-carbon energy system. We are adept at evaluating and implementing the options that best suit the goals and requirements of industrial and institutional clients. The projects we design use a combination of expertise from all areas of our multi-disciplined organization with a long history of complex projects that integrate a myriad of solutions for complicated issues. Power generation and distribution, heating, cooling, and water all present their own unique challenges, and our dedicated specialists make it easy for our clients to navigate complex needs. Starting with up-front planning, our team works to identify the optimum solution for each specific application and can support these projects through development, design, and implementation.

Our PHA personnel have trained and worked as both design engineers and hazard and risk engineers, making them uniquely qualified to assist in comprehensive, meaningful, and beneficial analyses. We understand how process systems work because we design them and offer complete operations, maintenance, and plant engineering services. Our comprehensive experience with power, industrial, oil and gas, and energy systems gives us a thorough understanding of the systems evaluated within process hazard and risk analyses.

Because we incorporate PHA specialists into our project teams from the start, we seamlessly integrate safety and safety systems into our designs, as well as the critical PHA activities at the appropriate time to ensure an efficient and cost-effective approach to project development. As part of our PHA-related work, we use processes and programs that are well known in the industry and appropriately incorporate PHA activities throughout the design process, including:

• Early project hazard identification through structured team brainstorming.
• Detailed HAZOPs and LOPAs.
• Specification of high-integrity pressure protection systems (HIPPS).
• Analysis of safety instrumented systems to verify SIL.

We use our extensive expertise to design coal units around the world with advanced environmental controls while maintaining efficiency and quality. We understand how to integrate all types of emission controls seamlessly into the base plant design, including carbon capture, flue gas desulfurization (FGD), selective catalytic reduction, selective non-catalytic reduction, fabric filters and precipitators, mercury and air toxic controls, dry sorbent injection, and other advanced technologies. The constructability, operability, and maintainability of our designs reflect this industry-leading expertise, which we apply to ultra-supercritical, supercritical, subcritical, and advanced cycle technologies. Our wealth of experience helps our clients minimize risk, maximize performance, and minimize capital and operating costs for coal units of all types.

From simple peaker units to more complex supercritical or ultra-supercritical units powered to accept the cleanest-burning coal, our technology specialists provide every facet of coal plant design services including plant development, strategic planning, conceptual design, detailed design, and operational and maintenance engineering support.