BHEL writes another success story; equipment performance pays dividends; machines to power Asia's largest CPP.

The sterling performance of the generating equipment supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) for the country's largest captive power plant, has paid handsome dividends, both to the company as well as the customer - National Aluminium Company Ltd. (NALCO).

The 960 MW (8x120 MW) captive power plant at Angul in Dhenkanal District of Orissa, set up by BHEL in three phases has been powering NALCO's production efficiently and uninterruptedly over the last 17 years.

The customer's confidence has resulted in BHEL clinching yet another prestigious order for the ninth and tenth successive units of 120 MW each for the expansion project of the plant, reiterating BHEL's belief in the adage 'Our success lies in the customer's success'.

Valued at Rs.8000 Million, the order was won by BHEL under stiff International Competitive Bidding (ICB), as its offer was found techno-economically the best. Significantly, this is the largest-value single order bagged by BHEL for a captive power plant.

With the completion of the project in a tight schedule of 29 months, the installed capacity of the plant will go up to 1200 MW, making it Asia's largest captive power plant. Post completion, the plant will power an enhanced aluminium smelting capacity of 4.6 Lakh tons per annum from the present capacity of 3.5 Lakh tons.

Notably, in a bid to provide maximum value to its customer, BHEL has brought down the scheduled commissioning cycle time from 42 months in case of Unit-6 (set up by BHEL in early nineties) to just 26 months for Unit-9.

With this, the company has reinforced its commitment towards reducing cycle time aimed at commissioning of power projects in the shortest possible time. Quicker commissioning will result in substantial saving for the customer, both in terms of capital cost as well as generation of additional revenue.

Earlier, BHEL has commissioned eight units of 120 MW each, at NALCO's captive power plant at Angul. The order for the first phase of the project envisaging five units of 120 MW each was placed on the company in June 1982 and was completed by BHEL in 1988.

The excellent performance of the machines resulted in NALCO reposing confidence in BHEL's capabilities and placing another order for phase 2 of the project involving supply of one unit.

Subsequently, the order for phase 3 was won by BHEL under ICB, outbidding Japanese and Chinese companies, for two units of 120 MW each.

The present order for phase 4 of the project envisages manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of two Steam Turbine Generator (STG) sets of 120 MW each with matching Pulverized Fuel Fired Boilers, Generator Transformers, associated auxiliaries and state-of-the-art unified controls & instrumentation (C&I) system, in addition to complete civil and structural work for the captive power plant expansion project. For the first time, the complete state-of-the-art control system for these two units of NALCO will be on a unified platform.

While the Steam Turbine Generator will be manufactured at BHEL's Hyderabad plant, the Boiler and the Generator Transformers will be manufactured at the company's Trichy and Jhansi plants, respectively. Boiler auxiliaries will be supplied by BHEL's Ranipet plant and BHEL's Electronics Division will supply the C&I system. The company's Power Sector – Southern Region will be responsible for execution of the project.

For NALCO, BHEL has also commissioned earlier, a co-generation plant comprising three numbers Turbine Generator sets (18.5 MW each) along with matching Boilers of 200 Tonnes per Hour capacity and an additional 4th Boiler at its Mines and Alumina Refinery Complex at Damanjodi in Orissa. These units have also been operating satisfactorily for the last nearly two decades and their performance has also been lauded by the customer.

BHEL has emerged as the market leader in co-generation and captive power plants, offering units for both steam turbine based and gas-based combined cycle power projects for total power and process steam requirements of various industries.

So far, the company has supplied and commissioned more than 600 steam turbine and gas turbine-based plants for a host of industries like metal, paper, sugar, cement and process industries like refineries, petrochemicals, fertilizer etc. In addition, BHEL has established itself as a supplier of gas turbine-generators to utilities in India and the overseas market.