At EPS, we specialize in delivering comprehensive project and cost engineering services that ensure your projects are executed and constructed efficiently, economically, and successfully. With our decades project and construction experience, we bring well-established practices for project development, costing, financial evaluation, and construction management.
Accurate cost estimation and financial forecasting are critical for the success of any project. Our experts provide detailed cost analyses and projections to help you make informed decisions and optimize resource allocation.
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Detailed Cost Estimation:
Financial Modeling:
Risk Analysis:
Detailed Cost Estimation: Capital Cost Analysis: Comprehensive breakdown of project costs, including materials, labor, equipment, and overhead. Operating Cost Estimation: Analysis of ongoing operational expenses to determine the total cost of ownership. Contingency: Planning, risk analysis, construction activities. Operating Cost Estimation: Analysis of ongoing operational expenses to determine the total cost of ownership. Life-Cycle Costing: Evaluating costs over the entire life of a project or asset.
Capital Cost Analysis: Comprehensive breakdown of project costs, including materials, labor, equipment, and overhead.
Operating Cost Estimation: Analysis of ongoing operational expenses to determine the total cost of ownership.
Contingency: Planning, risk analysis, construction activities.
Life-Cycle Costing: Evaluating costs over the entire life of a project or asset.
Financial Modeling: Cash Flow Projections: Forecasting financial inflows and outflows to assess project viability. Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis: Calculating the profitability and potential returns of investments. Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis: Assessing how changes in variables impact project outcomes.
Cash Flow Projections: Forecasting financial inflows and outflows to assess project viability.
Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis: Calculating the profitability and potential returns of investments.
Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis: Assessing how changes in variables impact project outcomes.
Risk Analysis: Risk Identification and Assessment: Recognizing potential financial risks and their impact. Mitigation Strategies: Developing plans to minimize risks and safeguard investments.
Risk Identification and Assessment: Recognizing potential financial risks and their impact.
Mitigation Strategies: Developing plans to minimize risks and safeguard investments.
Project Budgeting and Evaluation
We assist clients in establishing effective project budgeting processes and evaluating project performance against financial and operational metrics.
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Budget Development and Management:
Performance Monitoring:
Project Evaluation:
Budget Development and Management: Resource Allocation Planning: Optimizing the use of resources to meet project objectives. Cost Control Strategies: Implementing measures to keep project costs within budget.
Resource Allocation Planning: Optimizing the use of resources to meet project objectives.
Cost Control Strategies: Implementing measures to keep project costs within budget.
Performance Monitoring: Variance Analysis: Identifying deviations from the budget and recommending corrective actions. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establishing metrics to track project success.
Variance Analysis: Identifying deviations from the budget and recommending corrective actions.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establishing metrics to track project success.
Project Evaluation: Feasibility Studies: Assessing the practicality and potential success of projects. Cost-Benefit Analysis: Comparing the costs and benefits to determine project value. Post-Project Reviews: Evaluating outcomes to identify lessons learned and best practices.
Feasibility Studies: Assessing the practicality and potential success of projects.
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Comparing the costs and benefits to determine project value.
Post-Project Reviews: Evaluating outcomes to identify lessons learned and best practices.
Training and Instruction
EPS offers specialized training programs to enhance your team's skills in project management, cost engineering, and financial analysis.
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Professional Development Courses:
Workshops and Seminars:
Mentoring and Coaching:
Professional Development Courses: Conceptual Development and Cost Estimating of Engineering Projects: A course developed and instructed by Dr. John A. Williams for AIChE and ASME. Project Evaluation: Operating Cost Estimation and Financial Analysis: Training on cost estimation and financial assessment techniques.
Conceptual Development and Cost Estimating of Engineering Projects: A course developed and instructed by Dr. John A. Williams for AIChE and ASME.
Project Evaluation: Operating Cost Estimation and Financial Analysis: Training on cost estimation and financial assessment techniques.
Workshops and Seminars: Customized Training Sessions: Tailored programs to meet your organization's specific needs. Industry Best Practices: Sharing the latest methodologies and tools in project and cost engineering.
Customized Training Sessions: Tailored programs to meet your organization's specific needs.
Industry Best Practices: Sharing the latest methodologies and tools in project and cost engineering.
Mentoring and Coaching: Skill Enhancement: Improving your team's competencies in cost estimation and project evaluation. Ongoing Support: Providing continuous guidance to ensure the successful application of learned skills.
Skill Enhancement: Improving your team's competencies in cost estimation and project evaluation.
Ongoing Support: Providing continuous guidance to ensure the successful application of learned skills.
Why Choose EPS for Project and Cost Engineering?
Technical Excellence and Industry Experience
Our team brings together decades of experience in project management and cost engineering across various industries. Led by Dr. John A. Williams—a licensed Professional Engineer with over 40 years of industry experience—we leverage our expertise to deliver solutions that drive efficiency and profitability.
Multidisciplinary Expertise: Combining knowledge from engineering, finance, and operations.
Certified Professionals: Accredited by leading industry organizations, including AIChE and ASA.
Proven Methodologies: Utilizing industry best practices and cutting-edge analytical tools.
Customized Solutions for Your Projects
We recognize that every project is unique. Our services are tailored to your specific needs, ensuring that our solutions align with your strategic objectives and operational realities.
Client-Centered Approach: Collaborating closely to understand your goals and challenges.
Flexible Engagements: Adapting our services to projects of all sizes and complexities.
Strategic Insights: Providing actionable recommendations to enhance project outcomes.
Commitment to Excellence and Integrity
EPS is dedicated to delivering high-quality services with integrity and professionalism.
Quality Assurance: Rigorous processes to ensure accuracy and reliability.
Transparent Communication: Keeping you informed at every stage of the project.
Ethical Standards: Adherence to the highest ethical practices in all engagements.
Industries We Serve
Energy:
Manufacturing and Industrial Facilities
Chemicals and Refining
Environmental and Waste-to-Energy
Biotechnology and Bioprocessing
Steelmaking and Glassmaking
Construction and Infrastructure
Representative Engagements
A selection of EPS engagements across engineering, forensics, and valuation.
Engineering Design, Project Management, and Construction Expertise
Challenge
A major engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm faced extensive design changes while building a state-of-the-art nitrocellulose munitions manufacturing facility for the Department of Defense (DoD), leading to significant project delays and approximately $180 million in disputed costs.
Solution
EPS conducted a comprehensive technical review of the multi-year project's design elements, including process, mechanical, electrical, structural, civil, and safety systems, and performed a detailed cost engineering analysis. Through this extensive evaluation, EPS identified significant latent design defects and project management errors and then quantified the resulting scope changes.
Result
EPS's thorough analysis of the engineering design and project management supported effective dispute resolution, enabling the construction firm to present a strong defense in a contractual disagreement over project delays and cost escalation.
A global energy firm faced significant discrepancies in the valuation of their first-of-a-kind IsoAlky Retrofit Project by a taxing authority, which did not account for atypical costs associated with the pioneering energy technology.
Solution
EPS conducted a detailed technical assessment and financial appraisal of the first-of-a-kind technology, distinguishing typical from atypical expenses in the $560 million construction, and applied fair market value principles to establish the correct valuation.
Result
EPS’s analysis demonstrated the proper taxable value of the construction work in progress (CWIP), significantly reducing the client's ad valorem assessment by correcting the inflated valuation initially set by the taxing authority.
Technology and Equipment Provider for Renewable Waste-to-Energy Facility
Challenge
A renewable municipal waste-to-energy technology and equipment provider faced allegations of design defects, including faulty equipment, poor operational controls, unwanted byproducts, and inconsistent environmental emissions.
Solution
EPS conducted a detailed engineering analysis of the technology and equipment to determine and confirm its superior performance while identifying severe issues with the owner’s equipment, processing out-of-specification waste materials, poor water treatment, and unreliable environmental controls.
Result
EPS determined the root causes of the owner’s operational issues, enabling effective operational changes and eliminating alleged rectification works and damages, thereby saving substantial costs for the technology provider and facility owner.
Oil Refinery Explosion, Chemical Release, and Root Cause Analysis
Challenge
A major oil refinery experienced a catastrophic explosion in Superior, Wisconsin, resulting in extensive property damage, injuries to over 70 workers, and the evacuation of 27,000 residents due to a release of hazardous chemicals into the community.
Solution
EPS conducted an insightful forensic investigation accurately, determining the root causes of the equipment failures, operational procedures, safety procedure failures, generation of blast waves, and the release of hazardous chemicals.
Result
EPS's investigation and testimony provided prevailing testimony for four lawsuits, including a class action for the community and three workplace injury lawsuits for contract workers.
Technical Evaluation of Renewable Energy Technology Performance
Challenge
A renewable energy biomass cogeneration plant experienced operational deficiencies, including multiple fires, leading to disputes over the provided technology’s design and performance.
Solution
EPS conducted a forensic investigation, assessed the materials handling and quality, and evaluated the technology’s energy-generating performance.
Result
EPS’s forensic analysis established the absence of design deficiencies, demonstrated the contractual compliance of the technology, and identified the owner’s operational inefficiencies, thereby dismissing the litigation.
Engineering Expertise Overcomes Data Gaps in Renewable Ethanol Explosion Investigation
Challenge
A devastating explosion at a farm silo resulted in significant structural damage and loss of life, with renewable ethanol and fermentation-related causes suspected. However, critical production data and laboratory samples were not preserved by the owner, complicating the investigation.
Solution
EPS engineers performed forensic analyses, including debris mapping, blast force calculations, and process evaluations, to identify the origin and cause of the explosion. EPS’s investigation confirmed the presence of ethanol that had been improperly handled during the biofuel production supply chain.
Result
The investigation determined biofuel manufacturing operational missteps, key safety protocol violations, and destruction of data, resulting in a pre-trial award for the deceased’s family.
What Clients Say
We worked with Dr. John Williams and the team at EPS over the course of a long-running and high-value dispute in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia. John’s vast depth of knowledge, keen intellect, and ability to convey complex ideas simply and succinctly was an invaluable asset in the litigation. John was able to educate the legal team and, through his expert reports to the Court and the Judge about the intricacies of the dispute. What’s more, he and his team were a pleasure to work with and produced consistently high-quality reports in a time and cost-effective manner. We felt incredibly well supported by the team at EPS and would not hesitate to work with them again
— Andrew Stephenson, Partner and National Head of Projects & Jey Nandacumaran, Senior Associate, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
They can help with project research and analysis, providing clients with options and how they stack up against one another — equipment-wise and energy use-wise — and help conclude which option is best.
— Pat Simms, Global VP, Renewable Chemicals and Biofuels Developer
Project management, estimating skills, engineering, and design are all real core strengths of EPS…EPS’s comprehensive energy analysis for coal-fired versus gas-fired steam production, which approached the complexities of our plant’s utility and process systems, is one significant example. The project incorporated operating, maintenance, energy alternatives, risks, and future costs and presented a comprehensive financial assessment to our management in clear and concise language.
— Steve Saunders, Engineering Manager, US Petrochemical Producer
EPS made it clear to ask us what we wanted, what we did, and how they could help us – not, ‘This is it, this is how we are doing it; take it or leave it.’ They were just really interested in giving us a custom package for whatever we wanted done..
— Tom Gardner, Leading Metals Recycler
Intelligent, competent, politically astute, good teamwork and safe.
— Ron Halik, Environmental Engineering Department Manager, International Biotechnology Corporation
EPS has for more than 20 years effectively provided mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, civil, and structural engineering, as well as project development and construction management, to increase our manufacturing site's competitiveness. The cost of EPS engineering is well justified in setting direction and providing project savings.
— John McKinley, Plant Manager, US Petrochemical Producer
Attention to detail, thorough understanding of engineering and its nuances.
— Kurt Brickley, Port of San Diego
EPS is the benchmark on which I will measure engineering firms in the future.
In the world of startups, everything needs to be fast-tracked, because generally, it’s the first product for your company. If it doesn’t work your company is dead, so you look for reliability, speed and cost. And EPS has delivered all three more than once.
— Pat Simms, Global VP, Renewable Chemicals and Biofuels Developer
Competent, professional, honest, and able.
— John Havens, Texas Utilities
About Dr. John A. Williams
A Leader in Project and Cost Engineering
Dr. John A. Williams, PE, ASA, MBA, CFEI, AIChE Fellow, is the founder and General Manager of EPS. With over 40 years of operations, engineering, and construction experience, Dr. Williams is a recognized expert in the engineering analysis and financial appraisal of energy, power, and manufacturing technologies.
With over 40 years of experience, Dr. Williams offers a unique synergy of engineering expertise and business acumen. He has developed and instructed courses for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) since the mid-1990s. His courses consistently draw engineering professionals from Fortune 100 companies who lead in innovation, engineering, design, and technology development.
Credentials
Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) by the American Society of Appraisers in Machinery & Technical Specialties: Energy, Environmental, and Manufacturing Technologies.
Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) by the National Association of Fire Investigators.
Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE Fellow).
PhD in Chemical and Fuels Engineering from the University of Utah
MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago
BS in Chemistry from the University of Delaware
Licensed Professional Engineer in over 20 states
Our Services Include
Driving Efficiency and Profitability
We help clients achieve their project goals by optimizing costs, improving financial planning, and enhancing project execution.
Innovative Solutions and Best Practices
We leverage the latest methodologies and industry best practices to provide innovative solutions that deliver tangible results.
Client Success Focus
Your success is our priority. We are dedicated to providing services that add value and contribute to your organization's growth and profitability.
