OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2012. The booming Indian power plant market has been penetrated. Hitachi Power Europe GmbH (HPE) and its joint venture partner BGR Energy will supply six 660 MW utility steam generators ("boilers") for three coal power plants on the Indian sub-continent. HPE and BGR Energy were successful in the bidding procedure of state energy supplier NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation). The customer has now confirmed the order for one of the three sites; order confirmation for the second and third site has been bindingly promised within the next few weeks.

"This order marks the first successful step that we have taken in another high-growth market for state-of-the-art coal power plants", explains Klaus Dieter Rennert, Chief Executive Officer of the HPE Board of Directors. This endorses the growing internationalization of the company's business which has been driven forward for some years now – all the more so since the traditional German market for coal power plants has all but collapsed. In August 2010, HPE and Indian plant constructor BGR Energy set up a joint venture for the construction and commissioning of highly efficient utility steam generators. Hitachi Power Europe has 30% and BGR Energy 70% of the holdings in the "BGR Boilers Private Limited" joint venture.

At the end of February, the two joint venture partners qualified for consideration in the bidding procedure of state-owned energy supplier NTPC for the construction and commissioning of six highly efficient utility steam generators at three sites (Meja, Raghunathpur and Solapur). The official contract signing ceremony will follow a few weeks after the Notice of Award (NoA). The plant will be handed over to the customer 48 months after the NoA. Currently HPE and BGR Energy are working tirelessly to set up a production plant for pressurized parts. The idea is for 5 utility steam generators a year to be built there. Production is set to start in mid-2013. Beforehand, the future foremen and shift supervisors will receive intensive training in production matters at HPE subsidiary "Meeraner Dampfkessel GmbH". The joint venture partners are also participating in other bid invitations in India. Fossil-fired power plants currently supply two-thirds of the power needed on the sub-continent. The installed overall capacity is set to rise to over 330,000 MW by 2017 – practically double what it is today.

Aside from a number of major power plant projects in Germany and the Netherlands, HPE is at the moment constructing 12 utility steam generators for two power plant sites in South Africa. Since South African coal is very similar (with regards to heating value, ash content etc.) to coal in India, Hitachi Power Europe can achieve its track record and products of proven quality deployed in South Africa for its orders in India. For the Indian market, Hitachi Power Europe has also developed a standardized utility steam generator which is lower in cost yet still provides high efficiencies and availabilities. "HPE can look back on over 100 years of experience in the design, construction and commissioning of coal power plants", summarizes Klaus Dieter Rennert. "This know-how is of decisive importance for the technological leadership and competitiveness of our company."