BHEL has installed 4x180 MW Mangdechhu hydroelectric project at Thimpu, Bhutan. It was inaugurated by Narendra Modi in the presence of Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Dr Lotay Tshering.
With this, it has demonstrated its engineering and project management skills and a commitment to undertake challenging jobs as part of its responsibility towards relation building with neighbouring countries. The Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Project Authority (MHPA) officials have appreciated this effort.
BHEL has executed the electro-mechanical package for the project which includes design, manufacture, supply, transportation, storage, erection, testing and commissioning of generating units and associated auxiliaries including pelton turbines, generators, governors, MIV, etc along with balance of plant items — bus duct, DC system, EOT cranes etc. The equipment have been supplied from BHEL’s manufacturing units at Bhopal, Bengaluru, Rudrapur, Hyderabad, Jhansi and Mumbai, while erection and commissioning on site was carried out by the company’s power sector in eastern region, Kolkata.
The run-of-the-river hydroelectric plant constructed on Mangdechhu river in Bhutan has a gross head of 692 metre, with four numbers pelton turbines generating 720 MW from the project. The project has been executed under difficult terrain conditions with limited road connectivity as well as frequent disruptions during monsoons. This pelton turbine is the highest rating vertical turbine, designed, manufactured and supplied by BHEL outside India. The state-of-the-art valmet DNA-based plant controls have also been deployed by BHEL for the first time for a hydro power project outside India.
