Business Standard

Mahagenco finds alternative to BHEL in Chinese firm

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Makarand Gadgil Mumbai
State-owned power utility Mahagenco has found the answer to the delays by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) in delivering equipment in a Chinese power equipment manufacturer, Shanghai Electric Company. The firm's rates are comparable to that of BHEL.
 
Maharashtra, which faced a power shortfall of around 5,000 Mw last summer, is not happy with the delays by BHEL. Its projects of around 2,000 Mw have been delayed by 6 Months to 9 months because of the delays on the part of BHEL.
 
However, it could do little to overcome the problem as BHEL offers the lowest prices for plant machinery in the 250 Mw to 500 Mw plant category. But, a visit of the high power delegation led by Maharashtra energy minister Dileep Walse-Patil found Shanghai Electric Corporation's prices to be competitive.
 
Speaking to Business Standard, a senior official from the energy ministry said, "We will be giving the contract for the power plant only on the basis of competitive bidding whether it is BHEL, Shanghai Electric or any other company. However, we wanted to ascertain if the Shanghai Electrical's designs for the power plants are radically different from those used by Mahagenco and the availability of spare parts over the next 20 to 25 years."
 
A large number of power plants are being planned in India and SEC is bidding for many of these projects.
 
SEC hopes to bag some of those and SEC is contemplating starting a service station in India so that solves a major worry on the availability of spare parts to a large extent, the official claimed.
 
Besides, the energy ministry has taken the decision to go for 800 Mw super critical thermal power plants as they save both the commissioning time and they are more fuel efficient and also brings international competition into the bidding, said official.
 
With a large gap in the demand and supply the 800 Mw plants allow us to take a big jump in meeting the demand and besides it uses 6 per cent to 7 per cent less coal than two plants of 400 Mw. This means an enormous saving over the next 20 years to 25 years (average life of power plant) and also reduction in pollution, he added.
 
The Mahagenco has plans to add capacity addition of 6,500 Mw by 2010-11 and out of this, work on 2,000 Mw has already been started. The tendering process for the next 2,000 Mw will begin soon.

 
 

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First Published: Jul 30 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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