Alstom Power, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and BHEL have entered into a tripartite agreement for supplying turbines for the indigenous 700-MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors that will be built in four locations in India.
“We have been retained to provide turbines for the 700-MWe reactors for India's nuclear power programme. The first order is for Kakrapar in Gujarat,” Guy Chardon, senior vice-president, Thermal Products, Alstom Power, said here.
He told visiting journalists from India and France that NPCIL, Alstom Power and BHEL would have one-third equity each in this joint venture, which awaited the approval of the Atomic Energy Commission (of India).
Excavation is under way for building two reactors of 700 MWe each at Kakrapar, 80 km from Surat. Six more Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors of 700 MWe each will come up in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, with two reactors for each State.
Mr. Chardon addressed the journalists on Wednesday, on the eve of the inauguration of Alstom Power's new manufacturing and engineering facility in this picturesque town of Chatttanooga, on the banks of the Tennessee River. Alstom Power is a global leader in power technology. Its new facility, spread over 3.5 lakh square feet, will manufacture turbines and casings for nuclear power reactors and coal and gas-fired power stations, rotors and generator stators. The plant has the capacity to manufacture the largest steam turbine in the world. It also has the largest rotor balancing facility.
“We supply turbines for all types of reactors. We are very active in India,” Mr. Chardon said. Alstom Power and Bharat Forges have come together to establish a plant at Munda in Gujarat for building turbines for 1,000-MWe and 1200-MWe nuclear power reactors that will be built in India. “We will be supplying turbines for Rosatom's VVER-1200 nuclear power reactors,” he said. Alstom Power has entered into a joint venture with Russia's Rosatom to supply turbines for Rosatom VVER-1200 units not only in India but worldwide.
(Besides the two VVER-1000 units of 1,000-MWe capacity each built at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, VVER-1200 units of 1200-MWe capacity each are planned at Kudankulam and Haripur in West Bengal).
Philippe Joubert, president, Alstom Power, said the company would focus on further developing carbon-free technologies such as nuclear, hydro, solar and wind power.
Asked whether Alstom Power would retrofit any steam turbine in India as the company had done in a 500-MWe coal-fired power station at Widows Creek in Alabama, Mr. Joubert said retrofitting steam turbines in India would not make sense because coal-fired power stations in India were small-sized. Instead of retro-fitting, power utilities in India could replace their aged power stations.
