Bhel lines up equipment JVs with UK firm, Toshiba

Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) is close to sewing up agreements with two foreign companies for joint ventures in forging and transmission sectors, a senior official from the state-owned power equipment manufacturer said. “A team from UK’s Sheffield Forgemasters is arriving on Jan 9. We are close to signing a memorandum of understanding with them. The joint venture will manufacture forging equipment to cater to the super-critical segment and the demand expected in 5-10 years from the civil nuclear power market,” the official said. Bhel currently manufactures forging equipment for the sub-critical power plants at its Haridwar plant in Uttarakhand. Super-critical boilers, the mainstay of a power plant, are highly efficient boilers, and are economical when used in power plants with a single-unit size of at least 800 MW. They use less fuel, yield more power output and operate under very high pressure and temperature. The company is also close to signing a pact with Japan’s Toshiba for equipment manufacturing and engineering, procurement and construction business in the transmission sector. The government plans to add 78,577 mw capacity in the ongoing Eleventh Five Year Plan (that ends Mar 2012) and another 82,000 MW under the Twelfth Plan.