Tamil Nadu to be Home to 25,000 Megawatts of Power Manufacturing Capacity

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India's drive for additional power generation capacity is driving the domestic power equipment manufacturing sector. The state of Tamil Nadu has become the center of this activity.

By 2015, the state will be home to an annual manufacturing capacity of 25,000 megawatts (MW) of thermal equipment for coal-fired power stations. This activity is expected to create 3,000 jobs.

The increased power development has led to a series of joint ventures between Indian companies and international companies with proven technological and manufacturing experience. Tamil Nadu's advantage of having the local network of state-owned power equipment company Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) (BSE:500103) (New Delhi) and good port infrastructure helped joint ventures to form between BGR Energy Systems Limited (BSE 532930) (Chennai) and Hitachi Limited (PINK:HTHIY) (Tokyo, Japan), as well as Toshiba (PINK:TOSBF) (Tokyo) and JSW Energy Limited (BSE:533148) (Mumbai), and become the latest manufacturing entities to set up in the state.

The port facilities provide good logistics to facilitate the transport of large turbo generator components backing up the availability of a strong fabrication center.

With competition between the manufacturers developing, BHEL has expanded its annual manufacturing capacity to 15,000 MW at its Tiruchirapalli complex and is adding a few hundred jobs in 2012. The Toshiba-JSW joint venture is targeting the manufacturing of supercritical steam turbines and generators and has recently commissioned its production plant near Chennai. The plant is scheduled to reach an annual capacity of 3,000 MW during this financial year and expand production to an annual 6,000 MW by 2015, adding hundreds of jobs.

The Chennai plant will be the first Toshiba production facility outside Japan to make turbines and generators for coal-fired power plants. Taking advantage of the city's two ports, the joint venture will serve markets in Asia and Africa.

The BGR-Hitachi joint venture's plant at Madurantakam, 80 kilometers from Chennai, is scheduled to begin operations in July or August of this year. The initial manufacturing capacity target is 5,000 MW over the next 15 to 18 months. This should create about 2,500 jobs.

Now that turbine and generator manufacture has gone "critical" in the state, the continued expansion of manufacturing capacity can be expected, serving the Indian Power Industry's demand for equipment and for exports to developing regions.

For related information see December 28, 2012, article - India's BHEL Develops International Alliances to Obtain Larger Nuclear Turbine Contracts and February 15, 2012, article - Toshiba-JSW to Add 6,000 Megawatts to Indian Power Turbine Manufacturing.

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