BHEL’s milestone dispatches fi rst set of headers 2x800 MW power project at Krishnapatnam

TIRUCHIRAPALLI: The Public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) here achieved a major milestone today with the dispatch of the fi rst set of headers for the 2x800 MW power project at Krishnapatnam in Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh. At a brief function, A V Krishnan, Executive Director, BHEL fl agged off the fi rst set of headers from BHEL’s High Pressure Boiler Plant here. A BHEL press release said here today that for a typical 800MW Supercritical boiler unit 43 Headers are required. The weight of each header goes up to 38 Metric Tonnes (MT) and a length up to 24 Mts. As such special trailers are required to transport these headers from BHEL, Tiruchirapalli to site such as Krishnapatnam. Since Headers being very critical component in a boiler system, they are subjected to rigorous statutory inspection at various stages of manufacturing. It is to be noted that the weight of typical 800 MW Supercritical boiler units is about 32000 MT, the release added. These are the fi rst 800 MW supercritical boilers being set up by BHEL against a Rs.2500 Crore order placed on the company by Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company Limited (APPDCL) for setting up the 2x800 MW Steam Generator (SG) package at Krishnapatnam. BHEL had demonstrated its international competitiveness by securing this order by outbidding the L&TMitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) combine in a global tender, it said. BHEL’s scope of work in the project envisages manufacture, supply, and erection, testing and commissioning of the Steam Generators and associated auxiliaries including Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs). For the project, the supercritical Boilers will be manufactured by BHEL at its Tiruchirapalli works in TamilNadu, while the company’s Hyderabad and Ranipet plants will supply the Coal Mills and the ESPs, respectively, the release said. Supercritical technology ensures lower coal consumption, minimum emission, eco-friendly and effi cient power generation. BHEL has been promoting joint venture companies to build, own and operate supercritical thermal power plants in association with state utilities like TNEB, KPCL and Mahagenco, he added.BHEL has upgraded its technology base from sub-critical sets to supercritical sets of 660/800 MW and above. The company has ongoing collaboration agreements with Allston, France and Siemens, Germany, with a technology transfer arrangement. This will enable the country to be self-reliant in the fi eld of supercritical thermal power plants, the release said. BHEL is executing 15 once-through supercritical boilers totaling 10,500 MW. These includes 2x660 for NTPC’s Barh project in Bihar; 2x800 MW for Andhra Pradesh Power Development CompanyLtd’s Krishnapatnam project; 3x660 MW for Prayagraj Power Generation Company Ltd’s Bara project in Uttar Pradhesh; 2x800MW for Raichur Power Corporation Ltd’s Yeramarus project inKarnataka; 1x700 MW for Karnataka Power Corporation’s Bellary project in Karnataka; 3x660 MW for Lalitpur Power Generation Company Limited’s Lalitpur Project in Uttar Pradesh; and 2x660 MWDB power Ltd’s project in Madhya Pradesh, the release added.