BUILDING AN INTERNAL STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT FOR A NATIONAL NATURAL GAS IPP

Sector: Simple-Cycle Natural Gas Power Plants
ISO: Multiple ISOs / nationwide
Scale: Standardized template deployed across the client's national project portfolio
Schedule: 2024 – Present
Client: A National Natural Gas IPP
Service Lines: Program Management, Execution Management 

The Challenge: The client wanted to build an internal, self-perform structural engineering department instead of continuing to rely solely on outside engineering firms — a department build, not just a design deliverable. The client's power plant design uses standardized equipment deployed at sites across the country, where the primary site-to-site variable for structural engineering is geotechnical and environmental loading, not the equipment itself — every new site was otherwise being engineered from a blank sheet. 

CGP's Role 

• Internal capability build-out — To support the client's self-perform goal, developed template specifications, a design criteria basis, a QA/QC program, project and deliverable workflows, discipline division-of-responsibility documentation, and a schedule/budget template — the full internal operating framework for an in-house structural department. 

• Template design development — Developed an envelope structural design criteria covering more than 90% of the client's potential U.S. site conditions, and built a template design — calculations, drawings, and 3D models — around that envelope rather than a single-site design. 

• Program rollout — The template has been implemented across the client's project sites over the past two years, reducing structural engineering cost by approximately 40% relative to site-specific design.  

Outcome: The client now runs structural engineering as an internal department — with its own criteria, QA/QC, workflows, and budgeting — built around a template design approach that has cut structural engineering cost by roughly 40% across implemented sites.