Centre for applying supercritical technology in power plants

New Delhi: Setting the stage for the induction of the new generation “supercritical” technology in the country, the Government has taken a final call on placement of bulk orders for upcoming power project units based on the new technology on home-grown equipment major Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL).

According to the proposal, BHEL has been guaranteed a minimum of two 800-MW units at state-owned NTPC Ltd and Damodar Valley Corporation’s upcoming projects at Darlipalli in Orissa and Kodarma in Jharkhand, respectively.

A total of five 660 MW units in NTPC’s new power projects have also been earmarked for execution by BHEL, even if the engineering major loses out in the international competitive bidding process on the cards.

Besides, BHEL is already working on a joint venture with Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) for setting up both 800 MW units at the proposed 1,600-MW Udangudi project and for another couple of units for the Andhra Pradesh Government’s 1,600 MW Krishnapattinam project.

Matching quotes:

The assurance of units to BHEL, in all of the designated NTPC and DVC projects, is conditional to the state-owned equipment firm matching the quote of the lowest bid that NTPC and DVC get for equipment sourced through the competitive bidding route for their respective projects, according to Government sources.

BHEL, the country’s largest power equipment manufacturer, needs to execute a minimum number of projects utilising the new generation sets in order to sufficiently absorb the technology, for which it has tied up with foreign partners.

Units based on the “supercritical” technology, as opposed to the conventional sub-critical technology sets of 250 MW and 500 MW being used in the country so far, are considered to be superior in terms of higher plant efficiencies and economies of scale and in being environment-friendly.

The technology is, however, yet to be tried out in the country, even though BHEL has been ready with it for the last two years and has been keen to test out the technology following its technical tie-ups with Alstom of France and Siemens of Germany to manufacture boilers and turbine generators, respectively. In case of the 500-MW sets, BHEL had established the technology by the eighth set that it executed.

Finding alternatives:

BHEL had earlier sought bulk orders from its largest customer, NTPC Ltd, for the power major’s upcoming supercritical technology-based projects to be given to it on a negotiated basis in order to sufficiently absorb and indigenise the technology.

Talks, however, failed to make much headway and BHEL lost out on the former’s first set of supercritical technology-based projects to Russian firm Power Machines (which is implementing the 3x660 MW plant at NTPC’s Barh project) and Korea’s Doosan (which is implementing the 3x660 MW plant at NTPC’s Sipat station).

Following lack of progress in talks with NTPC, BHEL had begun looking out for alternatives, and subsequently, initiated talks with a bevy of States to form joint venture companies to execute coal-fired projects using the new technology units, including Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.