Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has selected GE Power to supply equipment for state-owned Hindustan Petroleum’s (HPCL) Visakh Refinery located in Vizag (Visakhapatnam) in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Image: GE will be responsible for the supply of one 6F.03 gas turbine and a generator for installation at the refinery. Photo courtesy of General Electric.
Under the Rs2.2bn ($31.5m) contract, GE will be responsible for the supply of one 6F.03 gas turbine and a generator for installation at the refinery.
The contract is a part of capacity expansion of the Visakh refinery from its current 8.33 million metric ton per annum (mmtpa) to 15 mmtpa.
The GE’s gas turbine will have capacity to generate close to 60MW of power to run the plant operations whereas the exhaust steam energy generated will be used for process applications.
GE South Asia Gas Power Systems CEO Deepesh Nanda said: “Globally, GE’s 6F-class gas turbines (6F.01/6F.03) are offering superior performance, reliability, and flexibility to our customers, typically associated with larger power plants.
“These machines are also a perfect replacement to the frame 5 and 6B gas turbines that are powering the refineries in India for more than a decade.”
The 6F.03 gas turbine, which will deliver more than 25% of heat rate improvement over the traditional Frame 5 machines, is expected to bring significant cost benefits to HPCL in terms of fuel savings during the power plant operations, GE said.
Earlier this year, BHEL was awarded Rs10.34bn ($148m) contract for setting up a gas turbine based captive power plant for the Visakh Refinery expansion project, on lumpsum turnkey (LSTK basis).
The captive power plant is intended to meet the power and steam required by HPCL for the refinery expansion project.
Under the contract, BHEL is responsible for engineering, manufacture, supply, transportation, erection & commissioning and civil works of one gas turbine generator (GTG), one heat recovery steam generator and one steam turbine generator along with associated auxiliaries.
The Visakh Refinery modernization project, which is estimated to cost approximately $3.1bn, is planned to be completed in 2020. It is being carried out on an area adjacent to the existing site.