Apex Cogen's engineering and technical personnel have hundreds of years of experience in selecting, installing, and operating new and used power plant equipment from a variety of manufacturers.

The heart of the plant. The electrical generation drive, typically a gas-fired turbine or reciprocating engine, is the heart of the cogeneration plant, and many models and capacities are available. The expected service conditions, electrical efficiency, fuel availability, emissions, exhaust mass flow and temperature, capital cost, and operating expense comprise early considerations in turbine or engine selection. Equipment availability, reliability, maintenance intervals and regime, and suitability for various thermal and power enhancement schemes, as well as the caliber and training of local operating and maintenance personnel are also key considerations in the equipment selection process.

Optimizing the selection. Initial selection of equipment is typically made from experience and basic thermal/electrical ratios; and confirmed in early screening studies with simplified cost savings calculations. As evaluation of an opportunity progresses, selection of equipment is optimized through successive heat balance calculations, and financial modeling. For used equipment, a range of suitable equipment may be identified and modeled to facilitate a global search for available equipment.

Packaged Cogeneration Solutions. Apex Cogen Group is western Canadian sales representative for European Power Systems, the exclusive Canadian distributor for the 2G Energietechnik line of packaged and containerized combined heat and power ("CHP") plants. Since its founding in 1995 in Heek, Germany, 2G Energietechnik GmbH has supplied more than 1,200 CHP plants and is a pioneer in engine efficiency enhancement and modular packaging. The 2G systems use proven MAN and GE Jenbacher reciprocating engines that combust natural gas and biogas fuels. The MAN engines have been enhanced by 2G to achieve higher efficiencies in sizes of 50 kW up to 500 kW. The GE Jenbacher engines are used in module sizes from 500 kW up to 4.4 MW. Overall efficiencies of up to 90% are achieved with waste heat recovery.