BHEL to invest Rs 1,200 cr in R&D by 2012

 India's biggest power equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) is revamping its production processes to develop low cost and more efficient equipment as it seeks to counter the threat of cheap imports from China. The company plans to increase its expenditure on research and development (R&D) by almost 50% to Rs 1,200 crore by 2011-12, said Bhel’s chairman and managing director B Prasada Rao at the 46th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company.

“The engineering & technology character of the organisation will be enhanced with increased focus on innovation and R&D,” he said. In 2009-10 Bhel invested `829 crore in R&D with prime focus on economical power equipment that have high efficiency.

With its R&D initiatives, Bhel has been able to expand the load on existing power equipment to generate more power without much additional cost. For instance, it has introduced rating sets of 600 mw in the sub-critical league that match Chinese 660-MW super critical sets in efficiency without escalating the cost of the equipment. The company has introduced new range of equipment and enhanced the rating of 500 mw sets to 525 mw and 250 mw to 270 mw. The company recorded a jump of 37% in profit-after-tax (PAT) to a record `4,311 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2010.

Its turnover during the fiscal also grew 22% to an all-time high of Rs 34,154 crore.

The company has secured orders worth Rs 59,037 crore from domestic and international clients in 2009-10, of which about 90% came from the private sector. The current order book of the company stands at Rs 1,44,000 crore. Mr Rao said that against the backdrop of climate change, there would be increased focus on low carbon path technologies such as Ultra Supercritical technology, IGCC and Solar Power.“Bhel proposes to play a lead role in ‘development and deployment’ of advanced Ultra Supercritical Power Plants under the proposed National Mission for Clean Coal (Carbon) Technologies,” he said. The company also proposes to expand its global footprint by establishing manufacturing and service presence in all its major export markets.

Currently, Bhel has the capacity to manufacture power equipment with a cumulative generation capacity of 15,000 MW per annum, which the company plans to scale up to 20,000 MW by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal.