L&T-Mitsubishi Joint Venture Bags First Indian Order for Supercritical Pressure Steam Turbines

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--L&T-MHI Turbine Generators Private Limited (Mumbai) has received a $314 million order from Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company Limited (APPDCL) (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh) to supply two supercritical pressure steam turbines with a power generating capacity of 800 megawatts (MW) each for APPDCL's project in Krishnapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

The L&T-MHI joint venture was established in 2007 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited (TYO:7011) (MHI) (Tokyo, Japan), Larsen & Toubro Limited (BSE:500510) (L&T) (Mumbai), and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TYO:6503) (MELCO) (Tokyo, Japan) to manufacture and market power generators and steam turbines in India.

As a part of the deal, MHI, a pioneer in power-generation equipment, will deliver the turbines, and MELCO will supply generator units by the end of 2010. This order is expected to strengthen and expand the market for the joint venture's steam turbines and boilers in the country.

As India targets a higher rate of economic growth, the country's power sector is striving to keep pace with its ever-growing energy requirements. A number of thermal power plants are being planned in order to meet the rapid surge in the country's demand for power. APPDCL's Sri Damodagram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station Project in Krishnapatnam will be the first facility in India to use the supercritical pressure steam turbines. These turbines operate at higher pressures--about 250 times the atmospheric pressure--and higher temperatures than other steam turbines. They consume less fuel relative to the energy output and have low carbon-dioxide emission rates.

In an effort to improve the performance and efficiency of its components, MHI is undertaking various other projects to churn out a range of state-of-the-art, eco-friendly products. In a joint venture with GE Energy, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut), MHI is developing a new supercritical steam turbine, which upon completion is expected to be the most advanced combined-cycle steam turbine for use in gas-turbine power units.

Recently, MHI successfully completed a round of tests on the new MACH II-SI steam turbine. The results have revealed an energy efficiency of 66.1%, with a 1% increase in energy output as compared to other engines in the 6-MW category, making MACH II the most efficient engine to date. MACH II-SI has an output capacity of 3.6 to 5.75 MW, including the ability to recover heat from exhaust steam.

The basic design of the MACH II-SI steam turbine is borrowed from MHI's existing MACH-30G model, with the exception of the ignition system. The micro-pilot ignition of MACH-30G has been replaced with a spark ignition in MACH II. In addition, the company has also made a few design enhancements to the combustion chamber, piston and cylinder-cover components of the MACH II. The pre-chamber shape has been altered to increase combustion efficiency and reduce heat loss. The power generation process has also been fine-tuned, with full-load lead-time being reduced by about 50% and the input fuel-air mixture composition being altered to increase the efficiency of the entire power generation process. Based on this new energy efficiency benchmark, MHI is planning to upgrade all its existing MACH micro-pilot ignition engines to the advanced technology used in MACH II.

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