Bhopal, Jan 28 (IANS) Power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) here Thursday signed a joint venture agreement with Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Ltd. (MPPGCL) to set up a 2X800 MW supercritical thermal power plant in Khandwa district.
The agreement was signed between BHEL Chief Managing Director B.P. Rao and MPPGCL Executive Director (Finance) A.M. Sajnani in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arun Yadav, state Minister of State for Energy & Mineral Resources Rajendra Shukla, state Chief Secretary Rakesh Sahni, and Secretary (Energy) S.P.S. Parihar.

According to the agreement, BHEL and MPPGCL will set up the joint venture with initial equity equally subscribed by both the partners. Subsequently, the equity would be diluted so that the stake of both BHEL and MPPGCL is reduced to 26 percent each and the balance equity of 48 percent is subscribed to by financial institutions/banks and other partners.

The joint venture would place the order for setting up of the power project on BHEL on a nominated basis while the first unit of the coal-based power plant would come up within 48 months of the order being placed and the second unit would get operational within 54 months.

To this end, BHEL will initiate advance action for pre-engineering activities. The Turbine Generator units of 800 MW would be manufactured by BHEL at its Haridwar plant, while the once-through supercritical boilers, would be manufactured at BHEL’s Tiruchy plant.

Supercritical technology ensures lower coal consumption, lower emission, eco-friendly and efficient power generation. The project also qualifies for carbon credits under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Later BHEL Executive Director M.K. Dubey told IANS that BHEL has been promoting joint venture companies to build, own and operate supercritical thermal power plants in association with state utilities and has already set up two such joint ventures with TNEB for a 2×800 MW power plant at Udangudi in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, and with KPCL for the 2×660/800MW and 1×660/800MW at Yeramarus and Edlapur in Raichur, Karnataka.

BHEL has also upgraded its technology base from sub-critical sets to supercritical sets of 660/800 MW and above. The company has ongoing collaboration agreements with Alstom, France, and Siemens, Germany, with a technology transfer arrangement.

BHEL has already enhanced its manufacturing capacity to 10,000 MW per annum and is further augmenting it to 15,000 MW per annum, and plans are afoot to hike it further to 20,000 MW by 2011-12, he said.