Are Chinese power equipment suitable for India?

Chinese equipment are better than Indian equipment in matters of quality, performance and delivery time, besides being 15% cheaper.However the power equipment has to be configured to burn Indian Coals and then turbines to work with Indian Grid frequency and reliability conditions.

          Question of unreliability of Chinese Equipment arises from the quality standard.It is also a known fact that Chinese Suppliers adopt different quality standard for equipments supplied for their own country, as compared to those supplied for India.

           As Mr. Chanrasekhar of L&T has already pointed out - Chinese suppliers had got the power plant technology tranferred from the leadings  manufacturers like Babcock , Alstom , Hitachi , Siemens-Westinghouse etc. and lateron discontinued the tie-ups. That is why  whenever we Indians insist  for some change  in design as on date they( i.e Chinese supplier ) at the begining start relenting. Thereafter if we foot-down on our stand for the technical requirements ( considering equal life span of equipments as that given by BHEL ) - they comply for it, but naturally with some extra price tag.Even with this extra price tag - it is, in all likelihood, shall be much cheaper than BHEL or other Indian manufacturer. This is because there is a huge difference of around 15% cost between them and BHEL.

  Of course,there is an issue of maintenance and repair of equipments ( i.e SAS - service after sales ) . For which policy should be framed so that Chinese Companies are bound to establish manufacturing facilities in India - which give the utility that extra confidence and hence comfort.

    Let us accept the fact that in general we , the Indian power plant professionals ( particularly those in utilities ) , do not go indepth to the engineering aspects involved in design of thermal power plants. Many time some features are accepted as a black-box with a standard phrase " IT IS THE STANDARD PROVEN PRACTICE " .We rely to much on the ethics and faithfulness of BTG suppliers.As a result we can not catch hold of the sensative deviations, if BTG manufacturer tries to sneak through the vagueness of owners specifications etc. - a problem particularly faced with Chinese because of their over-agressive attitude.

  To conclude, we can get performance standard from the Chinese manufactureres at per with other BTG manufacturers ,at a lower cost - provided we give due technical deligence to it. The reason of lower cost comes from the simple fact of huge production rate there in CHINA. Our BHEL -Hardwar ( TG unit ) has yearly capacity of around 9000MW/annum ( which they are planning to enhance to 12000MW/annum by 2012 ) - wheras Dongfang alone has capacity of more than 30000MW/annum as on date. Apart from them ,there are other players like SEC and HARBIN. In one presentation to NTPC around two years back , HARBIN expressed that it is easier for them to supply 800MW units than 660MW units - because there production is more in 800MW units. All these facts points out to reason why they can supply at such a competitive rate. 

     I strongly feel that branding Chinese Machine as inferior in general does not carry any sense.

      Dongfang M/C has failed to deliver in Sagardighi as well as in Amarkantak ( where there was reportedly some TG bearing failure problem ) - but at the same time machine supplied by SEC ( Sanghai Electric Corporation ) at YAMUNANAGAR is working satisfactory : and had already achieved guarateed parameters of output ,Heat Rate etc. Comparison between Dongfang and Sanghai document shows that - SEC engg. information exchange is much more transperent and detailed as compared to Donfang.

        However while working with any Chinese supplier , any Indian Power Plant Profession need to exercise more caution and deleberation as compared to BHEL documents - simply because we are more conversant with BHEL for over few dacades which has establised faith in them. That faith and provenness of Chinese Equipments will come with some passage of time - when they ( i.e Chinese suppliers ) customise their equipments as per Indian Grind Condition , and the design philosophies prevanent in our country.

   On many issues , it is felt that BHEL has continued their age-old design philosophies - without giving serious effort in optimising eqipment duty and sizing.These potential areas of optimisation can be known - only when we explore Chinese design . This will ultimately lead to more initiative on the part of BHEL to redo their philosophies and cutting down cost - maintaining the same reliability of the plant.

Any body who visits China will notice the immmense progress made by the Industries there and it is not possible to do so without a relaible Power supply.  Having visited China (Cities), one notices that the Power Supply never fails there.  There is a reliable supply without any fluctuation.  I visited the IT park at Shanghai and was told they have not provided any power back up for thier offices as power never fails here.

One also obsrves that the power companies have been buying equipment from China at lower cost.  Cost is a relaitve factor and also is linked to the specifications that the developement team of the project have put in place.  Quality costs, and if one wants quality plants one may have to pay accordingly.  Have the companies buying power plansts from China compramised on the quality - one is not sure.  Many a project developer to put up a winnning bid for winning a project or for winning bids for sale of power to the Boards may resort to lowering of prices and hence lowering quality of power plants.  As many Chinese power plants are not commissioned we will have to wait and watch

But I feel if the right price is paid the right quality can be bought and these plants should also work in India as they work in China