Chinese turbine to be back in DPL soon

Almost a year after a technical snag which affected its production and revenue, Durgapur Projects Ltd (DPL) is getting ready to be back on track.  A defunct turbine, which was supplied by Chinese power equipment manufacturer Dong Fang, is already back in Kolkata after repairing and is expected to be commissioned again with in a month and a half.

The incident which happened on May 30 last year had even forced the Central Electricity Authority to issue guidelines saying power equipment suppliers must have a manufacturing facility in the country. “The turbine is already back from China and is at Kolkata port now. It will be transported to Durgapur with in seven days and is expected to be recommissioned in another one month,” said Mriganka Majumder, Managing Director of DPL.

The technical problem had affected the generation and profit of the Burdwan-based DPL. “We suffered heavy damage in terms of generation and revenue loss because of this equipment failure,” he said. Chinese-made equipment had faced similar difficulties at West Bengal Power Development Corporation’s 300 mega watt (MW) Sagardighi project and Sterlite Industries-run Balco’s 540-MW captive plant plant.

Because of this, several global manufacturers have established joint ventures in India — including L&T with Mitsubishi, Jindal with Toshiba, and Areva and Siemens with BHEL.

Earlier, there were also reports that the DPL authorities had contacted Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to put the unit back on stream, as the maintenance contract with the Chinese firm had lapsed and depending on the cost and time needed to take the turbine to that country. However, the company had gone ahead with the decision to send the equipment back to China.