BHEL achieves Major Landmark; Boiler columns for BHEL's First Supercritical Boiler flagged off

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) achieved a major milestone today with the despatch of boiler columns for the first supercritical boiler, being manufactured by BHEL. Significantly, this is also the first supercritical boiler being manufactured in India. The consignment has been flagged off for the Barh Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC in Bihar.

Mr. R.S. Sharma, CMD, NTPC and Mr. K. Ravi Kumar, CMD, BHEL, jointly flagged off the consignment, comprising 100 metric tonnes of boiler columns from BHEL’s High Pressure Boiler Plant (HPBP) at Trichy, in the presence of Mr. Anil Sachdev, Director (HR) and Mr. A.V. Krishnan, Executive Director, BHEL, Trichy Complex. Other senior officials from NTPC and BHEL were also present on the occasion.

These columns will be used for installation of BHEL-built supercritical Boilers at Barh Thermal Power Project Stage-II, located about 75 kms from Patna in Bihar.

BHEL had bagged its first order for 2x660 MW supercritical boilers under International Competitive Bidding (ICB) from NTPC. For the project, supercritical boilers are being manufactured at BHEL’s Trichy facility while the company’s Hyderabad and Ranipet plants will supply the coal mills and the Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs), respectively. The erection and commissioning of the equipment would be undertaken by BHEL’s Power Sector Eastern Region of BHEL.

BHEL has fully established state-of-the-art technology for manufacture of thermal sets up to 600 MW rating in the sub critical range and has the capability to manufacture sets up to 1,000 MW rating in the super critical range. BHEL has now introduced 660 and 800 MW thermal sets with supercritical parameters.

BHEL is building Capacity and Capability to contribute fully for meeting the power forecast for the 11th Plan and beyond. For this, the company has enhanced its manufacturing capacity to 10,000 MW per annum which is being further enhanced to 15,000 MW per annum during the financial year and 20,000 MW per annum by 2011 at a total investment of Rs.50,000 Million. BHEL has also taken broad steps like shift in operational focus from Product to Project with implementation of effective Project Management Systems.