BHEL completes 6GW Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line project

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) said that it has installed the Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line, an 800kV 6GW ultra high voltage direct current (UHVDC) link between the Western Region Grid in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh and the Southern Region Grid in Pugalur, Tamil Nadu.

According to the Indian state-owned engineering services provider, the power transmission line will bring relief to the power deficit Southern Grid.

Among other equipment and systems, BHEL had supplied converter transformers, filter bank capacitors, shunt reactors, and instrument transformers for the Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line from its Bhopal plant and thyristor valves from its electronics division, Bengaluru.

BHEL said that the thyristor valves convert AC power produced at the IPPs at Raigarh into DC power for transmitting it over the 1,800km long Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line and then converting it again into AC at the Pugalur end for interconnection with the Southern Grid.

BHEL completes 6GW Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line project. Photo courtesy of Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay.

The company, in consortium with Hitachi-ABB Power Grids, had bagged the order in 2016 from Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.

BHEL said that the Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line is its second UHVDC transmission project after the Agra Converter Terminal for North-East Agra +800 kV, a 6GW Multi-Terminal HVDC link in September-2016 (Bipole-1) and September-2017 (Bipole-2).

The company stated: “BHEL has been associated with HVDC projects in India since their inception by establishing the first HVDC link in the country between Barsoor (Chhattisgarh) and Lower Sileru (Andhra Pradesh). Subsequently, BHEL has been involved in successful execution of several HVDC links like Rihand-Dadri, Chandrapur-Padghe and Ballia-Bhiwadi links.”

Recently, BHEL had won an order worth INR 10,800 crores from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) pertaining to the Gorakhpur and Kaiga nuclear power plants.