Engineering Services

I am Saad Hafeez, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer (CEng MIMechE) with over 15 years in power generation — currently Deputy General Manager – Power Plants at OMS, previously Maintenance Manager at K-Electric and head of Engineering & Operations for a four-plant fleet at Omni Group. Alongside that operating career I take on a limited number of independent assignments each year in the areas below, where the value is a test, an audit or an evaluation done by someone who has run the plant side of the table. Every engagement is scoped in writing, delivered personally, and documented to a standard that can be put in front of a regulator, a lender or a board.

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Performance guarantees are only worth what the test behind them is worth. I plan and lead acceptance and diagnostic performance tests for combined cycle plants, gas turbines and reciprocating engine plants, structured around the applicable codes — ASME PTC 46 for overall plant performance and PTC 22 for gas turbines — with test procedures, boundary definitions, instrumentation reviews, stability criteria and corrections to reference conditions agreed by all parties before the test window opens.

• Test procedure development and review, including test boundary and instrument lists
• Witnessed testing, data validation and correction to guarantee reference conditions
• Uncertainty discussion handled explicitly, not buried — so results survive scrutiny
• Formal test reports suitable for submission to regulators and offtakers

Track record: led performance testing at BQPS-III (900 MW, report submitted to NEPRA) and led the test team at PTPL (1,263 MW RLNG, report submitted to CPPA-G). Read the method in the complete guide to performance testing or the article on what a performance test really proves.

Maintenance is where plant economics are quietly decided. I review maintenance strategies and organisations, audit the mix between preventive, predictive and run-to-failure work, and plan and supervise major overhauls — scope definition, spares readiness, contractor management and return-to-service.

• Maintenance strategy and organisation audits, with a practical corrective roadmap
• Major overhaul planning and supervision — gas turbines, steam turbines, HRSGs and engine fleets
• Spares and inventory reviews: criticality, min/max levels and slow-moving stock
• Condition monitoring programme setup — vibration routes, oil analysis, thermography priorities

Track record: LM6000 Level-3 overhauls including hot-section exchange at the 248 MW Korangi Power Complex; steam turbine Level B and C overhauls; HRSG inspections to API 510; managed PKR 500M+ of plant inventory. See the complete guide to power plant maintenance.

Procurement decisions in the power sector are technical decisions wearing commercial clothes. I provide independent technical evaluation of bids and proposals — compliance against specification, life-cycle cost realism, O&M capability assessment and risk identification — and owner's-engineer support on EPC and conversion projects, from P&ID and heat-balance review through construction and commissioning.

• Independent technical bid evaluations for O&M and EPC scopes
• Design document review — P&IDs, heat and mass balances, equipment selection
• Project schedule review (Primavera P6) and progress verification

Track record: independent bid evaluations for CPHGC (coal jetty O&M, 2×660 MW) and Engro Powergen Thar (ash handling, 660 MW); owner's lead mechanical engineer on the S&K Phase-II conversion, a US$55M EPC project.

Tariff petitions stand or fall on the credibility of their technical numbers — heat rates, degradation assumptions, maintenance cost build-ups. I support utilities and IPPs on the engineering side of regulatory filings: substantiating performance figures with test evidence, building defensible O&M cost cases, and responding to regulator queries on plant technical matters.

• Heat rate and efficiency substantiation, including test-based evidence
• Technical inputs to multi-year tariff petitions and determinations
• Degradation and overhaul-cycle assumptions, documented and defended

Track record: technical lead for K-Electric's Multi-Year Tariff petition covering six power stations, working alongside EY as financial counterpart. Background reading: from heat rate to tariff.

Retiring a plant properly — safely, compliantly and at full residual value — is an engineering project in its own right. I manage decommissioning, preservation and disposal processes: asset condition documentation, lot preparation, buyer technical due-diligence support and supervised dismantling handovers.

• Decommissioning and preservation planning for retired units
• Disposal process management — documentation, valuation support, site supervision
• Technical due-diligence support for plant and equipment sales

Track record: Site Manager for the disposal of BQPS-I Units 3 & 4 (PKR 4.8 billion, 15,000+ tons of plant); decommissioning and preservation of four GE Frame-5 gas turbines.

A CMMS earns its keep only if the asset register, hierarchies and work processes underneath it are right. Having led a plant-wide SAP PM implementation, I advise on CMMS structure and adoption — functional locations, equipment hierarchies, preventive maintenance plans, permit-to-work integration — and on asset management frameworks aligned with ISO 55001 (certified).

• SAP PM / CMMS implementation and remediation support
• Asset register and hierarchy design, maintenance plan build
• ISO 55001 asset management gap assessments

Track record: plant team lead for SAP PM implementation at a gas-engine power station; ISO 55001:2014 certified; DuPont PSM implementation exposure at a 248 MW combined cycle complex.

• Enquiry — send the details through the contact page; I reply personally, usually within two working days.
• Scoping — a call or site visit to define the question the work must answer, the data available and the deliverable format.
• Proposal — scope, method (including the governing standard), timeline and fee in writing before anything starts.
• Delivery — the work itself, then a documented report you can put in front of a regulator, lender or board.

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