Company Profile
Craig Powers is a freelance Chartered Control Engineer with 30+ years of experience in the design and commissioning of power plant control systems. With an emphasis on high quality and robust solutions, he is acknowledged as a leading power generation control system specialist and is the preferred supplier to many of the UK's power plants and generating companies.
Craig Powers 07760 392355
Projects are grouped by type. Please click on the links below for more details.
Combustion Improvement
Soft Desk Conversions
Over Fire Air Schemes and NOx Reduction
CCGT
Biomass Conversion
BETTA Compliant Load and Firing Controls
Cutlass
Other
We can offer the following services:
• Control System Programming and Configuration (DCS, PLC)
• Acceptance Testing / Integration
• Loop Tuning and Optimisation
• Controls System Troubleshooting
• Control System Review and Verification
• Control System Support and Maintenance
Typical Projects
• Soft Desk conversion of existing plants
• Auto boiler controls (mills/firing, combustion draught, drum level and feedwater, turbine load control, steam temperature control, etc)
• Combustion improvement and optimisation
• Emissions improvement schemes, BOFA, SNCR etc
• Biomass conversion
• Plant start-up / shutdown automation and sequencing
• New build, design through to commissioning
Plants Supported:
• Steam generating fossil fired power plants (Coal, Oil, Gas, Biomass, Waste Incineration)
• Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT)
Platforms supported:
• Cutlass
• Siemens / Moore APACS
• Various PLC & DCS platforms
Where we do not have direct experience of your hardware platform we can work with your staff to deliver control system improvements and optimisation.
Craig Powers is a Chartered Control Engineer with over 30 years experience specialising in power plant automation and control. He graduated in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from UMIST (Manchester) in 1984 and then joined National Nuclear Corporation working on the auto control systems for Torness and Heysham 2 nuclear power plants, the last of the Advanced Gas Reactors (AGR).
Following the privatisation of the UK power industry (c.1991) he moved into the fossil fired control sector, working on large coal fired power plants, CCGTs, and more recently a conversion of a coal fired boiler to 100% wood biomass fuel.
Further qualifications were gained with a degree in Mechanical Engineering (Open University, 1999) and post graduate study into the application of Artificial Intelligence for advanced control.
Working for various engineering companies (including Instem/Capula) he was involved in the installation of Cutlass systems in the 1980s/1990’s, as lead engineer on many of the APMS soft desk conversions in the 1990s/2000s, as lead engineer on the BETTA compliance for Scottish Power on their coal fired fleet, and lead auto boiler controls engineer on the Ironbridge Biomass Conversion. As a freelance controls consultant he provides controls systems upgrades and support to many of the power plant end-clients (e.g. E.On, EDF, Scottish Power, SSE, RWE) on their coal fired and gas fired CCGT power plants.
With a keen interest in motorsport and automotive engineering, Craig supports the development of new engineering talent by volunteering as a judge and scrutineer at the IMechE’s Formula Student competition. He acts as a judge at a number of international FS competitions.
Education
Post Grad Diploma, Intelligent Control / Artificial Intelligence, Liverpool JMU (2009)
BSc (Hons) Mechanical Engineering, Open University (1999)
BSc (Hons) Electrical & Electronic Engineering, UMIST (1984)
Professional Qualifications
Chartered Engineer, CEng (1992)
MIET (Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, formerly the IEE) (1990)