Federal Equipment Company buys and sells used power generation equipment, from complete gas and steam turbines to the balance of plant around them. Turbines usually sell where they sit, often with us acting for the owner as seller's agent. From more than 1 million sq ft of storage in Cleveland, OH, we supply diesel and natural gas generators, transfer switches, package steam boilers, cooling towers, heat exchangers, pumps, motors, and transformers.
Power Generation Equipment, from Standby Power to Power Plants
Power generation equipment ranges from one standby genset at a factory to the turbines of a utility-scale plant. We handle both ends: complete turbines, usually sold at the owner's site, and the generators, switching, steam, cooling, and electrical equipment that surround a prime mover.
Demand comes from data centers, utilities, and industrial plants that need on-site, bridge, or standby power. Equipment for running a manufacturing plant, such as compressed air, process cooling, and vacuum, is on our plant utility equipment page. Boilers, heat exchangers, and pumps serve power generation and plant utility buyers alike, and on a generating site they make steam, reject heat, and move feedwater.
Federal Equipment Company is a third-generation family business that has bought and sold used process and packaging equipment since 1957. When a plant closes or consolidates, we buy its surplus outright or sell it on consignment.
Where the equipment comes from
Turbines come from their owners. The rest comes mostly out of manufacturing plants that are closing, consolidating, or replacing their own power systems.
Turbine owners
Energy companies and holders of unused units ask us to sell gas and steam turbines, often naming us as their seller's agent.
Drug and chemical plants
Drug, chemical, and consumer products plants release standby generators, boilers, cooling towers, transformers, and switchgear along with their process equipment when a site closes.
Auctions and other dealers
We also buy generators, boilers, and electrical gear at auction and from other equipment dealers.
A plant that is moving production often has standby power to sell at the old site and a need for it at the new one. Generator buyers include dealers, power system service companies, and manufacturers adding standby power, and turbine buyers include data center developers and power producers that cannot wait for a new unit.
By buyer
Equipment for Data Centers, Power Plants, and Industrial Sites
Demand for used power generation equipment comes from three kinds of buyer. Each card says what that buyer needs and which categories to open first.
Data centers
A data center waiting on a grid connection needs on-site or bridge power to open on schedule, and standby power once the grid arrives. Gas turbines and natural gas gensets can carry the load in the meantime, while diesel gensets, transfer switches, and UPS systems cover outages. Data center demand for gas turbines and on-site power has been part of our turbine work since 2025. Start with our diesel generators, natural gas generators, and UPS systems and transfer switches.
Utilities and power plants
Utility and independent power plants run gas turbines, steam turbines, or both in combined cycle. We buy and sell those turbines as complete units, and they usually sell from the owner's site instead of passing through our warehouse. The plant around them needs boilers, deaerators, condensers, feedwater pumps, cooling towers, medium-voltage motors and electrical equipment, transformers, and switchgear, and much of that balance of plant, at industrial scale, is equipment we buy and sell.
Industrial plants
A plant that makes its own electricity runs a genset for long hours as prime power, usually on natural gas, and keeps standby units for outages. Cogeneration, or combined heat and power, recovers engine heat from jacket water and exhaust to make hot water or steam, using heat exchangers and a heat recovery boiler. The genset, exchangers, pumps, and switchgear are standard equipment we supply, and the system design stays with your engineer.
Browse the categories
Gas and steam turbines
Turbines usually sell from the owner's site, so they are not in these categories.
Gas Turbines, Balance of Plant, and the Names Buyers Use
Power generation buyers search for the same machines under several names, and the unit of size changes from one machine to the next. These are the ranges we have handled and the terms that mean the same thing.
Range we have handled
Gas and steam turbines
Complete units, usually sold where they sit
Generator sets
Diesel and natural gas, 15 to 2,000 kW
Transfer switches
150 to 2,600 amps
UPS systems
10 to 150 kVA
Package steam boilers
15 to 800 HP, firetube and watertube
Cooling towers
45 to 2,210 tons
Heat exchangers
3.2 to more than 8,000 sq ft, shell and tube, plate, and air-cooled
Transformers
Up to 2,500 kVA, with primaries up to 34.5 kV
Motors
Up to 1,500 HP at 4,160 V
Gas and steam turbines
Heavy-duty frame gas turbines, such as the Westinghouse 501-series, run in utility plants, while aeroderivative units such as the GE LM2500 are lighter and start faster. A steam turbine makes power from steam raised in a boiler or a heat recovery steam generator, and in combined cycle that steam comes from a gas turbine's exhaust. Buyers check the rating in MW, the frequency, the fuel, and the operating hours first.
Generators and gensets
A genset, generator set, and engine-generator set all mean an engine and an alternator on one base. Three-phase gensets are usually rated at a power factor of 0.8, so a 2,000 kW unit is also a 2,500 kVA unit. Buyers also search by engine model, such as a Caterpillar 3516B or a Cummins KTA50.
Switching and distribution
An automatic transfer switch, or ATS, moves a load between utility and generator power without an operator. Switchgear is the larger assembly of breakers that distributes power and can parallel several generators. A motor control center groups the starters for a plant's motors in one lineup.
Boilers and heat rejection
Package boilers are rated in boiler horsepower, and one boiler horsepower is about 34.5 pounds of steam per hour from and at 212°F. Firetube boilers pass hot gas through tubes inside a water-filled shell, while watertube designs put the water in the tubes and suit higher pressures. Cooling towers are rated in tons, and air-cooled fin fan coolers do the same job where water is scarce.
We also handle turbine parts and control systems.
Manufacturers
Power Plant Equipment Manufacturers We See Most
We do not build equipment, so the name on each nameplate is the original builder's. These are the brands that come through most often in power generation work.
Gas and steam turbines
We have worked on Westinghouse 501-series gas turbines both as single units and as combined cycle plants. GE LM2500 aeroderivative units and Siemens and Shin Nippon steam turbines have come through as well. Turbine parts and Mark V control systems have come from General Electric.
Generators and switching
Caterpillar gensets are the ones we see most, from 3406 and 3412 units to 3516B gensets rated at 2,000 kW. Cummins, Kohler, Generac, Onan, Detroit Diesel, and Spectrum Detroit Diesel units come through regularly, including Generac MD series diesels and Kohler natural gas sets. Transfer switches are mostly ASCO 7000 Series.
Boilers, cooling towers, and heat exchangers
Cleaver-Brooks firetube and watertube boilers are the most common, followed by Burnham and Hurst. Cooling towers come mostly from Marley, whose NC series we have handled from 136 to 2,210 tons, along with Evapco and BAC. Shell and tube exchangers come most often from Atlas Industrial Manufacturing, Ketema, and ITT, and Alfa Laval plate heat exchangers suit closed cooling water loops.
Motors and electrical
Baldor and Reliance lead the motors, including 4,160 V units up to 1,500 HP. Square D switchgear, motor control centers, and transformers recur, along with ABB and Acme transformers and Cutler-Hammer medium-voltage starters.
Large power equipment raises three practical questions before it ships: what condition it is in, how it moves, and how it is paid for.
Inspection
Inspection and testing
We run equipment under power where we can, and inspection and testing can be arranged before a unit ships. On request we refurbish and test a unit before it ships, replacing wear parts and checking that its motors power on. Many buyers send an OEM representative to look a unit over, and we run live video tours when a trip to Cleveland, OH is not practical.
Logistics
Rigging, crating, and freight
Gensets, boilers, and transformers are heavy, and a large unit needs planned rigging at both ends. We arrange skidding, crating, and freight, including export. Most turbines and some other units sit at the seller's site instead of our Cleveland, OH warehouse, so ask where a unit is before you plan freight.
Financing
Equipment financing
A large genset or boiler is a capital purchase. Our equipment financing runs through APPROVE, a network of lenders you can apply to from the Finance button on our product pages.
Buying used
What to Check Before Buying Used Power Plant Equipment
Power generation equipment is judged on its ratings, its fit to your site, and its paperwork as much as on its condition. Four checks come first.
Rating, hours, and duty
A genset nameplate gives a standby, prime, or continuous rating, and the three are not interchangeable. A standby rating assumes the unit runs only when utility power fails, so a genset should not run long daily hours at its standby rating. Ask for its prime rating instead. The hours on the meter and the maintenance log tell you more than the unit's age.
Voltage and frequency
Check voltage and frequency against your site early. Most US units run at 480 V and 60 Hz, Canadian plants often use 600 V, and large motors and transformers may run at 4,160 V. Converting a genset between 50 and 60 Hz changes engine speed and governor settings, so it needs the OEM to review the complete genset and confirm the rating it would carry afterward.
Emissions and boiler permits
Emissions rules for a stationary engine depend on its model year, its size, and whether it runs only for emergencies, so confirm the permit before you buy. Boilers carry an ASME stamp and a National Board number, and most states inspect a relocated boiler before it goes back into service. Those approvals belong to the buyer.
Lead time
Large new turbines, generators, transformers, and switchgear are often built to order, and the wait can run many months. A genset, boiler, or transformer we already hold can ship in days or weeks once inspection and any refurbishment are complete.
Selling surplus
Selling Surplus Power Generation Equipment
Most of the warehouse equipment we buy comes from healthy manufacturers closing or consolidating a plant, and far less of it from bankruptcies. Standby generators, boilers, cooling towers, transformers, and switchgear often leave with the process equipment, and we buy them together or on their own. An outright purchase gives a seller one firm number and a fixed date to clear the site. Consignment suits a seller who would rather share in what the equipment brings.
Gas and steam turbines work differently. We buy them outright or act for the owner as seller's agent, market the unit where it sits, and bring buyers who have shown proof of funds.
Send us a list, and we will come back with a number and a recommended way to sell.
Disconnecting, rigging, and hauling out large units with no upfront cost, with the expenses deducted from the sale proceeds
Investment recovery programs for companies retiring equipment at several sites each year
Certified Equipment Appraisers who value the kinds of equipment we buy and sell, in complete or desktop appraisals, with USPAP-compliant appraisals available and no sale required
Start with a list
A list with photos is enough to start. Include the nameplates and the hours on each generator, then call 800-652-2466 or email sales@fedequip.com.
Balance of plant is everything a power plant needs besides its generating units, the turbines or engines and the generators they drive. It covers steam and condensate systems, cooling towers and heat exchangers, pumps and valves, water treatment, transformers, switchgear, motors, and controls. We buy and sell that equipment from our Cleveland, OH warehouse and in our online auctions. The turbines themselves we buy and sell as complete units, usually at the owner's site.
Do you buy and sell used gas turbines?
Yes. We buy and sell gas and steam turbines as complete units, often acting for the owner as seller's agent. Turbines usually sell from the owner's site, so inspection happens there instead of in our Cleveland, OH warehouse. We have worked on Westinghouse 501-series and GE LM2500 gas turbines and on Siemens and Shin Nippon steam turbines. Buyers include data center developers and power producers that need on-site or bridge power and cannot wait for a new unit.
Where does used power generation equipment come from?
Turbines come from their owners, including energy companies and holders of unused units, who often name us as seller's agent. Most of the rest comes out of manufacturing plants: drug, chemical, and consumer products plants release standby generators, boilers, cooling towers, transformers, and switchgear when they close or consolidate. We also buy at auction and from other equipment dealers.
What should I check before buying a used genset for standby power?
Start with the rating, because standby, prime, and continuous ratings are not interchangeable. Then check kW and kVA, voltage, frequency, and fuel against your load and your site, and read the hours and maintenance history. Plan for an automatic transfer switch sized to your service. Emissions rules for a stationary engine depend on its age, size, and use, so confirm the permit before you buy.
Can I build a cogeneration system from used equipment?
Yes, because most of a cogeneration system is standard equipment. It pairs a genset or gas turbine with heat exchangers or a heat recovery steam generator that turn exhaust heat into hot water or steam, and a larger site can add a steam turbine. We supply natural gas gensets, heat exchangers, package steam boilers, pumps, and switchgear, and we have marketed complete steam turbine and heat recovery packages. The system design and permits stay with your engineer.
Do you have power generation equipment for 50 Hz sites?
Sometimes. We have handled 50 Hz gensets in Europe, including Caterpillar 3512B units built for 690 V and 50 Hz, and we arrange crating and freight for export. Most of our generators are 60 Hz units for North American sites. Check frequency and voltage against your site. Converting a genset between 50 and 60 Hz changes engine speed and governor settings, so it needs an OEM review of the complete genset and of the rating it would carry afterward.
Can I see a used genset run before I buy it?
Before you buy, we can run a genset under power where the hookups allow, show it on a live video tour, and make it available for an OEM representative to inspect. Some gensets are stored at the seller's site, not in Cleveland, OH, so check the location before you plan a visit. Full-load testing at the genset's rated output is left for commissioning at your site.
How do I sell surplus power plant equipment?
Send us an equipment list with nameplate photos, the hours on each generator, and the date the site must be clear. We will recommend an outright purchase, consignment, an auction, or a mix, and for a turbine we can act as your seller's agent. There is no upfront cost: we decommission, rig, and remove the equipment, and deduct those expenses from the sale proceeds. Call 800-652-2466 or email sales@fedequip.com to start.
Sourcing a turbine or standby power, or clearing a plant? Talk to our sales team.
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