NTPC-BHEL JV should focus on BoP for power plants; Shinde to Deshmukh

In view of the burgeoning shortfall in the availability of balance-of-plant (BoP) components in the country, the Ministry of Power (MoP) has asked NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Private Limited (NBPPL), the joint venture company (JV) formed by state-run NTPC and BHEL, to focus its energies on the crucial bottleneck being faced by the power sector. In recent times, most thermal power projects (TPP) in the country are being hampered by lack of BoP vendors and inadequate manufacturing capacity, not commensurate with the growing demands of the Indian power sector. BoP equipment consists of machinery such as coal handling plants (CHP) and ash handling plants (AHP). Pertinently, out of the 528 such orders required to be fulfilled for 11th Plan projects, till recently, only 232 had been realized.At present, 15 thermal power units, worth an cumulative capacity 3,963.20 MW, which were proposed for commissioning during the 11th Plan period, have been stalled due to the lapses in equipment supply. These power plants include the Parichha extension project, Santaldih extension Phase-II, Pipavav combined cycle power plant, Bellary thermal power plant (TPP) Stage-II, Jallipa- Kapurdi TPP and Udupi TPP. NBPPL was set up in April 2008, to undertake engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, involving the supply of, both, main plant and BoP of power projects, as well as for manufacture and supply of equipment in India and abroad. However, since its inception, the JVC has so far managed to bag only one BoP contact, that too from its parent firm, BHEL, for ONGC Tripura Company Limited`s 726 MW gas based power project in Tripura. However, the NTPC-BHEL JVC is also likely to get the contracts for NTPC`s 500 MW Singrauli and Muzaffarpur TPPs and a 500 MW-unit order from APGenco.