BHEL commissions 500 MW Thermal set at Rihand STPS.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has achieved a major milestone in the execution of mega power projects with the commissioning of the second 500 MW unit at NTPC’s Rihand Super Thermal Power Station (STPS) Stage II, in Uttar Pradesh, on schedule. With the synchronization of the unit, 12 million units of electricity will be added to the grid of the power deficit state, every day.

BHEL had bagged the Main Plant Package contract for the 2x500 MW Rihand STPS - Stage II, maintaining its track record of winning contracts under International Competitive Bidding (ICB). Valued at Rs.20790 Million, the order was placed by NTPC, reflecting the customer's confidence in BHEL's capabilities in the execution of power projects of this magnitude.

With this, the cumulative generating capacity of Rihand STPS has gone up to 2000 MW. Earlier, the first unit was also commissioned on schedule by BHEL, in February, 2005.

BHEL’s scope of work for the project envisaged design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of two Steam Generator and Turbine Generator sets of 500MW each, with associated auxiliaries and state-of-the-art Controls & Instrumentation (C&I).

The Steam Generators and Turbine Generators were manufactured at the company’s Trichy and Haridwar plants respectively, while the C&I system was supplied by BHEL’s Electronics Division, Bangalore. The company’s Hyderabad plant manufactured the Boiler Feed Pumps & Heat Exchangers and the Electricals were supplied by BHEL's Bhopal and Jhansi plants.

For NTPC, BHEL is presently executing contracts at Kahalgaon STPS (1,500 MW) in Bihar, Vindhyachal STPS (1,000 MW) in Madhya Pradesh, Talcher STPS (2,000 MW) in Orissa, Sipat STPS (1,000 MW) in Chhattisgarh and Feroze Gandhi Unchahar TPS (210 MW) in Uttar Pradesh. All the projects are progressing on schedule.

BHEL has fully established state-of-the-art technology for the manufacture of thermal sets up to 500 MW rating and has the capability to manufacture sets up to 1,000 MW rating for power projects suited to Indian conditions and Indian coal.

So far, the company has won orders for 37 numbers of 500 MW rating sets. Out of these, 26 sets have been commissioned and are operating at Trombay, Singrauli, Ramagundam, Korba, Farakka, Chandrapur, Simhadri, Talcher and Vindhyachal, besides Rihand. These units are performing exceedingly well with a Plant Load Factor of over 84.5% and an impressive Operating Availability of over 90%.