BHEL commissions 500 MW unit of Tuticorin thermal power plant

State-run BHEL today said that it has commissioned the second 500 MW unit at Tuticorin Thermal Power Station (TPS) in Tamil Nadu.

"Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully commissioned the second 500 MW unit at Tuticorin Thermal Power Station (TPS)," the company said in a press release today.

The first 500 MW unit of the project was commissioned on March 10.

Tuticorin TPS has been set up by NLC Tamil Nadu Power Limited (NTPL), a joint venture of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO).

The project is situated near the Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) port on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Earlier stages of Tuticorin TPS comprise five units of 210 MW, all installed by BHEL in three phases between 1979 and 1992.

Recently, BHEL had commissioned second unit of NLC's 250 MW circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) based power plant at Neyveli. The other project being executed by BHEL for NLC is the prestigious, 2x500 MW pulverised lignite fired thermal power plant, also coming up at Neyveli, which is the highest rating set of its kind in the country.

BHEL commissioned 8,230 MW in the power sector utility segment in the country during the financial year 2014-15, surpassing government's capacity addition target of 6,914 MW set for BHEL, by 19 per cent.

In all, BHEL commissioned/synchronised 11,941 MW in domestic and international markets during 2014-15, besides making major contribution to another 1,600 MW by commissioning two boilers of 800 MW each.

Significantly, BHEL's installed capacity has crossed 155 GW, including 132 GW of domestic utility sets and the company has joined the elite club of international manufacturers that have supplied power generating equipment of more than 150 GW.