BHEL achieves yet another milestone with successful Renovation, Modernization and Uprating of first 200 MW thermal set in the country; Extends working life by 15-20 years

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has achieved a major landmark in its after-market services business by successfully renovating, modernizing and uprating a 200 MW thermal set at Obra Thermal Power Station in Uttar Pradesh.

Following the renovating and modernization (R&M) of the unit by BHEL, the rated output of the machine has been enhanced to 216 MW and the unit has been synchronised with the grid. After successfully being in operation for its life span of 25 years, the working life of the machine has been further extended by another 15-20 years.

R&M of Obra was initiated with the original technology provider but was subsequently executed successfully by BHEL’s own in-house engineering capabilities.

BHEL succeeded in loading the machine to 218 MW i.e 2 MW higher than design capacity with all parameters within the acceptable range. This is a significant achievement considering the fact that BHEL had to strive hard in absence of original design documentations. This brings to the fore once again BHEL’s capabilities against the issue of dependence on foreign agencies as well as the reliability of BHEL to deal with the associated energy security risks and ensure self-sufficiency for the country's power sector.

Significantly, this is also the first instance of a successful modernisation and uprating of any 200 MW class machine in India and the technical capability demonstrated by BHEL is a very significant credential for future R&M business in India.

With over 150 sets of 200/ 210 MW rating in operation in the country, about 70 sets have outlived their designed economic life of 25 years. The power utilities need to see this as an opportunity for capacity uprating and Life Extension to not only improve their performance level in terms of improving efficiency and reducing emissions but also extending their useful life span by another 2 decades.

BHEL has already executed R&M/ Uprating of sets upto 120 MW rating with completion of R&M of 4 sets of 120 MW and uprating of 6 sets of 110 MW units. With the R&M and uprating of Obra unit 9, BHEL has successfully entered into 200/ 210 MW segment. Presently, R&M of 5 sets of 110 MW units are at different stages of execution by BHEL besides the remaining 4 sets of 200 MW Unit at Obra. Recently, BHEL was awarded the Energy Efficient (EE) R&M of 1x210 MW Unit-6 of Koradi in Maharashtra.

In order to bridge the gap between demand and supply, especially in the context of limited financial resources available and difficulty in land acquisition and environment clearance, it has become imperative for the country to look for other options for cheaper and faster power capacity enhancement. In this regard, optimum utilisation of existing capacity in the country to maximise the generation through Renovation & Modernisation (R&M) and Life Extension (LE) of existing power plants is considered to be the most cost effective option.