A significant milestone has been achieved in India’s power generating capacity addition programme with the commissioning of another 660 MW supercritical unit by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).

The second 660 MW unit has been commissioned by BHEL at the Barh Supercritical Thermal Power Project (TPP) Stage II of NTPC Ltd. in Bihar. Notably, the first 660 MW unit at Barh TPP Stage II, commissioned earlier by BHEL, was dedicated to the nation by Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy on 15th November, 2014.

The commissioning of the two 660 MW units at Barh TPP Stage II has been a major breakthrough for the country in achieving self reliance in the field of contemporary, state-of-the-art supercritical technology and demonstrates BHEL‘s prowess in the area of supercritical technology.

BHEL is presently executing orders for 36 sets of supercritical boilers and 31 sets of supercritical turbine generators, which are in various stages of execution. These orders include orders from Central and State sectors as well as private sectors. Super critical units are more efficient, consume lesser coal and are eco-friendly.

As in the sub critical segment, BHEL has retained its market leadership in the country’s supercritical segment also. The key equipment for the project has been manufactured by BHEL at its Haridwar, Trichy, Hyderabad and Bengaluru works, while the construction of the plant was undertaken by the company’s Power Sector – Eastern Region. To keep abreast with the latest technologies, BHEL has already taken up the indigenous development of the Advanced Ultra Supercritical (AUSC) technology with NTPC and IGCAR, which will result in a further reduction of about 11% in coal consumption and CO2 emission.

BHEL supplied thermal sets fully meet the performance standards notified by CEA. As per a recent CEA study on the performance of installed power generating sets, BHEL supplied sets have demonstrated a better operating Heat Rate resulting in less coal consumption per unit of power produced.