BHEL - New Technology and Expansion

TIRUCHI: Decks have been cleared for Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to jointly generate power from the 6.2 MW demonstration plant that the BHEL has been running at its Tiruchi plant using the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology.

The operating experience of this plant will be made a benchmark for running the 125 MW plant that BHEL and the Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation (APGenco) will install, at a cost of Rs. 950 crore, at Vijayawada by August-September 2011, and the 250 MW plant that BHEL and the NTPC will set up at Auriya in Uttar Pradesh. The objective is to make India a world leader in the IGCC technology that ensures higher operating efficiency and lower carbon emission, Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh told reporters on Sunday after reviewing the expansion plans of the BHEL, Tiruchi.

He said a taskforce had been formed to identify the initial investment needed for running the 6.2 MW demonstration facility as a regular plant. It would report in two months. A preliminary estimate had put the investment at Rs. 125 crore and the coal requirement at 50,000 tonnes a year. The plant would feed the grid of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

As for the energy strategy, Mr. Jairam Ramesh said the coal production would go up to one billion tonnes in 10 years from the current level of 450 million tonnes. India had the third largest coal reserve and, with the clean technology, it could reject the advice of America and European countries not to use coal.

He was confident that the Rs.1,100-crore expansion of BHEL, Tiruchi, would be completed by March 2009. The expansion of the Tiruchi plant, which accounts for 25 per cent of BHEL’s turnover, would add 2000-3000 engineers and artisans to BHEL’s payroll.

Mr. Jairam Ramesh lauded the BHEL’s entry into the manufacture of 660 and 800 MW boilers with super-critical parameters. The first 800 MW super-critical boiler would be supplied to APGenco for its Krishnapatnam plant. It would also turn out make 2 x 660 MW units for the NTPC’s plant at Barh in Bihar. The company had Rs. 95,000 crore worth of order for equipment meant to generate 60,000 MW.

Talks with Reliance

The Minister expressed satisfaction with the progress of negotiations between the BHEL and Reliance Power for the private company’s 4,000 (5 x 800) MW Ultra Mega Power Project at Krishnapatnam. He was all praise for Reliance Power for considering the Ministry’s request for tying up with an Indian company for the third Ultra Mega Power Project in the country. For the second Ultra Mega Power Project at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Reliance Power had placed orders with a Chinese company. The country’s first such project was being developed by Tata Power at Mundra, with equipment sourced from a South Korean company. The fourth, fifth and sixth projects would come up in Jharkhand, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.