BHEL bags order for steam turbine generator

Monday, 30 December 2002, 20:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has bagged a 161 million order to supply a steam turbine generator for installation at a cogeneration power plant in a Karnataka sugar factory.

NEW DELHI: Cogeneration power plants use agro waste or bagasse -- an abundantly available by-product of the sugar industry -- as primary fuel to produce electricity. For the sugar industry, cogeneration power plants using bagasse as fuel are highly cost effective. They also give sugar mills an advantage of selling surplus power to offset high operational costs, besides meeting their in-house requirements. Multinational equipment supplier SCM Sugars Ltd. has placed the order with heavy engineering major BHEL to set up the steam turbine generator set at its factory at Kotta in Mandya district, around 95 km from Bangalore. "The unit will be commissioned by BHEL in a tight schedule of 14 months," a company release said Monday. The order envisages manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of the 26-MW generation set with associated auxiliaries. BHEL had earlier bagged an order for a 20 MW steam turbine generator set from Amman Sugars Ltd. for their Nanjangud Sugar Factory near Mysore, also in Karnataka. Over the years, BHEL has emerged as a leading supplier of equipment for bagasse-based cogeneration plants, which are being tapped in India as a viable additional means to boost generation through renewable and alternative energy sources. Alternative and renewable sources are expected to contribute 10 percent of the 100,000 MW generation capacity India is aiming to add in the next 10 years. Cogeneration plants are eco-friendly and energy efficient, with faster a payback period, according to BHEL.
Source: IANS