Siemens to Supply Drives and Automation System for Bhushan's Hot Rolling Mill in Orissa

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Linz, Austria), a subsidiary of Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany), has secured a contract to supply drives and automation systems to integrated steel manufacturer Bhushan Power & Steel Limited (BPSL) (New Delhi), which is undertaking expansion activities at its compact hot rolling mill in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Siemens, which had earlier supplied static VAR compensators (SVCs) for the drives and electric arc furnaces at the facility, will undertake installation, supervision and commissioning of the new systems. The contract is scheduled for completion by July 2010.

BPSL has been operating an 800,000-ton-per-year hot rolling mill in Orissa since April 2008. In addition to doubling the capacity of the plant, the firm is incorporating capabilities to roll thinner steel strips of at least 1.2 millimeters in thickness.

The drives and automation systems to be supplied by Siemens will be based on the firm's SIROLLcis HM solution platform, which is a module comprising preconfigured products, solutions and lifecycle services tailored for hot rolling mills. The solution is aimed at ensuring reliable production based on several parameters such as thickness, width, flatness and product profile. It forms part of Siemens' Completely Integration Solutions (CIS) portfolio.

The existing hot rolling mill consists of a caster, five finishing stands and a coiler, and is being equipped with an additional unit of each. The second caster will be automated based on the SIMATIC S7 and SIMATIC PCS7 modular process control systems with SIMETAL-CIS CC Control, a continuous casting automation solution.

Siemens will supply the motor and additional cyclo-convertors for the sixth finishing stand; the main motor and main drive for the second coiler; and auxiliary drives and motors for new parts of the plant. Siemens also will provide the SIMATIC TDC multiprocessor automation solution and SIMATIC PCS7 process control system to automate the finishing mill.

In addition, the firm will supply two SVCs with an output capacity of 120 mega Volt Ampere reactive each for the electric arc furnaces, and SIMETAL-CIS PQ, which is a power quality control solution that monitors and controls power input to the electric arc furnaces in order to minimize disturbances such as voltage and load fluctuations to the internal plant network and the public network.

BPSL is operating a 1.5 million-ton-per-year integrated steel and power plant in Lapanga in Sambalpur, Orissa. The facility has manufacturing capacities of 800,000 tons per year of hot rolled coil and 600,000 tons per year of sponge iron. It is also equipped with an 800,000-ton-per-year blast furnace and a 116-megawatt (MW) captive power plant. In August this year, the firm announced plans to invest nearly $640 million in the next year to increase production of value-added steel and augment the capacity of the captive power plant by 250 MW. The power plant is being expanded to attain an installed capacity of 390 MW by the end this year, and the proposed augmentation will increase its capacity to 640 MW by June 2010. The firm also will invest in expanding the cold-rolling mill at the facility.

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