Kolkata, Dec 16 (IANS) State-run engineering major Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is internally aiming to cut down its dependence on thermal power business from 80 to 50 per cent in the next 10 years, a company official said on Friday.
"With a focus on non-power business, we are internally targeting to cut down dependence on thermal power sector to 50 percent from the current contribution of (thermal power) 80 percent," said company's Chairman and Managing Director Atul Sobti.
The company was laying thrust on transportation, defence and solar energy in a big way and invested Rs 300 crore to enhance the solar PV cell making capability to 225 megawatts (MW), he said on the sidelines of 31st Indian Engineering Congress by the Institution of Engineers here.
Speaking on the Central Electricity Authority's (CEA) new draft which said there is no requirement of capacity addition of coal-fired thermal power plants in 2017-22 when the huge capacity addition plans in the renewable sector are in place, he said: "Central Electricity Authority has sought comments for the draft of national electricity plan. Whether new power capacity is required or not is a matter of debate."
Based on demand projections, the CEA estimated that the requirement for new coal-based power plant capacity would be 44,085 megawatts (MW) in 2022-27.
But with 50,025 MW of coal power projects already in different stages of construction and likely to yield benefits in 2017-22, the authority did not foresee any immediate requirement for new coal-fired power plants.
