Bhel commissions two substations in Afghanistan

State-owned power equipment maker Bhel has commissioned two substations in Afghanistan, expanding its footprint in the strife-torn nation.
"Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhel) has commissioned two 220/20kV substations in Afghanistan. The project has been executed by Bhel on EPC basis," the company said in a statement.
The substations have been commissioned at Charikar, around 60 kms from Kabul and Doshi, around 150 kms from Kabul, it said.
"Both the substations are part of the 220 kV Pul-e-Khumri - Kabul transmission system and will provide power to Charikar and Doshi sites and their neighbouring areas," it said.
Further, BHEL established itself as a leading supplier of

eco-friendly supercritical sets in the country, it said.

During the year, 55 per cent of the supercritical sets commissioned in the country, aggregating to 4,140 MW were contributed by BHEL, it said in a statement.
This includes commissioning of first highest-rating 800 MW set at Yeramarus, 700 MW set at Bellary, two 660 MW sets at Lalitpur and one each at Bara and Mouda. It also commissioned 810 MW of hydro projects, the highest in the last 11 years.
In the export market, BHEL commissioned Sudan's largest thermal power plant, Kosti TPS (4x125 MW) on EPC basis. The power plant was inaugurated by the President of Sudan Omer Hassan Ahmed El-Basheer, the statement said.

In 2015-16, BHEL also forayed into new markets with maiden orders from Belgium and Mozambique, expanding its global footprint to 78 countries.
The company continues to rank among the highest R&D spenders in the country in the engineering and manufacturing segment with R&D expenditure at 3.34 per cent of its turnover.
The R&D efforts are aimed at improving the efficiency of existing products and developing new products, relevant to the needs of the country both in terms of technology and features vis-a-vis global benchmarks.
During the year, BHEL filed the highest-ever 477 patents and copyrights in a year, enhancing the company's intellectual capital to 3,441.

Leveraging its experience of three decades in the Solar PV (SPV) business vertical, the company is capitalising on emerging opportunities in the segment.
During last fiscal, BHEL set a new record in its solar PV business in a single year by commissioning 40 MWp of SPV power plants. These include SPV plants for KPCL, NLC, GEDCOL, Electricity Board of Daman and Diu, and ONGC.
In addition, turnkey orders for two grid interactive solar PV power plants of 50 MW each from NTPC and first ever Solar Canal top project (1 MWp) from NREDCAP were received.
During 2015-16, BHEL recorded a turnover of Rs 26,702 crore (Provisional). With a net profit of Rs 396 crore during Q4 of the fiscal, the company reported net loss of Rs 877 crore.

The performance has been impacted mainly due to continued subdued business environment, resulting in reduced level of operations and non-lifting of hold in most of the stranded projects, it said.
The company's continued focus on cash realisation resulted in a cash surplus situation. The rising trend of debtors has also been arrested, it added.