Chennai: Standardisation of power projects will considerably reduce the construction time and, in turn, the overall project cost. We are the most economical power equipment suppliers now; the per-mw cost of projects we execute is around Rs 4 crore, says Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) Power Sector Southern Region (PSSR) general manager and CEO N Kamalanathan.

Citing the National Thermal Power Corporations (NTPC) Simhadri project, where the corporation completed the first unit in a record time of 39 months, he said BHEL is progressing well in further reducing the cycle time. NTPC did the hydraulic testing of boiler five months ahead of schedule at the 500-mw Simhadri second unit. Similarly, BHEL reached an important milestone in the 500-mw Talcher project by boiler drum lifting in 4.5 months ahead of schedule. Using high capacity cranes, BHEL is now doing lot of pre-assemblies to reduce the cycle time.

Incidentally, the Japanese funding agency JBIC was against awarding the Simhadri power project to BHEL on the grounds that the Indian power major will not be able to complete the project on time.

Currently, BHEL-PSSR is executing projects over 7,000 mw in the southern region that includes Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and the union territory of Pondicherry. Our order book position is around Rs 628 crore at the beginning of this fiscal, says Kamalanathan.

Says BHEL-PSSR general manager (projects) K Ravi Kumar: We are expecting further orders to the tune of 2, 500 mw. The projects include 500-mw thermal projects in Bellary and Tuticorin, 2x250 mw from Neyveli Lignite Corporation, 2x235 MW steam turbine generator sets for the Kaiga atomic power project and hydel projects like 163 mw Athirapally and 100 mw Kuttyadi both for KSEB.

Our plant load factor (PLF) is 71.2 per cent, while the national average after taking into account competition machines is 69.7 per cent, says Kamalanathan. While BHEL generators at the Vijayawada power station are working on a PLF of 92.7 per cent (the highest in India), the North Chennai, Tuticorin and Mettur plants are working at a PLF of 84.3 per cent, 87.4 per cent and 86.4 per cent, respectively. Independent power projects (IPP) are rewarded if their PLF exceeds 70 per cent. It is a different matter that IPPs underrate their PLF to get usurious gains. For the year ended 31 March 2002, BHEL-PSSRs performance was good. The division posted a turnover of Rs 347 crore and before tax profit of Rs 52 crore as against Rs 317 crore and Rs 39 crore, respectively, clocked during the previous year.