Committee to Assess Imported Chinese Power Equipments.

NEW DELHI: Amid concerns over rising imports of Chinese power equipment and demands for imposing customs duty, the government is understood to have set up a committee to assess the performance of these equipments before taking any decision.

Many private power players are already using Chinese equipment and have placed big orders for upcoming projects.

The Power Ministry set up a panel sometime back to look into the performance of Chinese equipment that is being used in various power plants in the country, sources said.

However, sources said not much work has happened yet, since the necessary data is not available to carry out the assessment.

The panel expects to have a better picture on assessing the performance of Chinese power equipment after gathering complete information in the coming months, they added.

Going by the estimates, Chinese equipment is being used for over 7,000 MW of existing generation capacity at various power plants in the country.

Indian players are estimated to have placed orders for over 40,000 MW of power equipment with Chinese companies. The proposition of getting equipment as well as cheaper finance from banks in China is luring private power companies to import Chinese gear for their upcoming projects.

Existing plants of leading players such as JSW Energy, Reliance Power, Adani Power and Lanco use Chinese equipment.

These include JSW Energy's Torangallu and Ratnagiri plants, RPower's Rosa project and Adani Power's Mundra plant.

To ensure a level-playing field for domestic power equipment-makers against cheap Chinese imports, the government earlier this month expressed its willingness to slap a 14 per cent customs duty on imported gear.

Meanwhile, there has been a raging debate in recent times about the quality of Chinese equipment vis-a-vis products from domestic major Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL).

In August, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Praful Patel said that power plants set up with Chinese equipment have not shown better performance than those using equipment supplied by BHEL.

"In fact, Chinese supplied equipment have inferior heat rates (efficiencies) and the auxiliaries consume more power than that of BHEL. Secondary fuel oil consumption is also more... The time taken for synchronisation to commercial operation is much more than BHEL equipment," Patel had said.

He had also pointed out the average Plant Load Factor (PLF)-- an indicator of efficiency -- for the last three years of Chinese units is as low as 68 per cent, compared to BHEL's 79 per cent.

India is expected to see capacity addition of 1,00,000 MW in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), a scenario that would provide lucrative opportunities for power equipment-makers.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com