L&T, Mitsubishi tie up for super critical boilers

Larsen and Toubro Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are planning to set up a power generation-equipment manufacturing facility for 800 Mw super-critical boilers in the country.

The move will bring in competition in this segment, given that state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd is the only company in India at present that has the capacity to manufacture 800 Mw super-critical boilers.

"L&T had approached the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for technology transfer, which subsequently agreed. The investments for the project are going to be huge," a senior government official told Business Standard.

On an average, such greenfield facilities require a minimum investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

L&T and Mitsubishi are still discussing the outline of the project, and a location is yet to be chosen for the purpose. L&T already manufactures pressure parts and tubes for the boiler. Its executives declined to comment on the proposed facility, saying, "It is too early to speak on it."

Experts believe that it may be possible to achieve 4 per cent more efficiency with 800 Mw super-critical units than with 500 Mw units.

They also say that the time to set up such units is less, besides the fact of low fuel requirements leading to low emissions. The L&T move will help augment power generation capacity as a lot of developers cite limited manufacturing and engineering infrastructure for the slow growth in the country's generation capacity.

The proposed power generation-equipment manufacturing facility is also expected to facilitate the ambitious 4,000-Mw ultra mega power projects.