Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), the Indian government-owned power generation equipment manufacturer has put a new 600MW coal-fired power unit at the Rayalaseema thermal power plant into service.

Located in Cuddapah district in Andhra Pradesh (AP), the Rayalseema power plant has a capacity of 1.65GW with the new unit.

Developed in four stages so far, the Rayalaseema thermal power plant is made up of six units. The first two units, each of 210MW of this ambitious AP power project were brought into service in 1994. Thirteen years later, two more units of 210MW were added and in 2010, a 210MW unit was placed to take the capacity of the Rayalaseema thermal power plant past the 1,000MW mark.

The 600MW coal-fired unit was commissioned by BHEL under a Rs 1,445 crore ($320 million) contract given by AP’s electricity board APGENCO, way back in 2011.

BHEL has been responsible for the design, engineering, manufacturing followed by supply, installation and commissioning of a steam generator, turbo generator, electrostatic precipitator and related auxiliaries, electricals, controls & instrumentation (C&I), and switchyard of the new unit at the Rayalseema power plant in Cuddapah.

The power generation equipment manufacturer revealed that it had carried out manufacturing of the key equipment of the Rayalaseema thermal power plant at its Haridwar, Hyderabad, Trichy, Bhopal, Jhansi, Ranipet and Bengaluru facilities.

BHEL further said that the 600MW units such as the one used for this AP thermal power plant are engineered in-house and come with higher ratings based on the company’s 500MW rating units. The company has commissioned 18 sets of 600MW units in India till date.

It is also in the process of installing a couple of supercritical power units of 800MW each in Vijaywada and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier, this month, BHEL secured a INR 11,700 crore ($1.8 billion) contract to deliver three supercritical thermal units of 800MW each for the Patratu power plant in Jharkhand state.

  Andhra Pradesh, APGENCO, BHEL, Cuddapah, India, Rayalaseema thermal power plant