“For all practical purposes we are at par with our competitors in matters of technology"
BHEL is one of the top ten companies with over Rs. 300 crores R&D investments annually. Over the years the Company has developed new technologies, indigenised processes in power generation and controls. The Company is looking up to a new dawn with its Strategic Plan 2012 which projects a six-fold increase in R&D expenses.
Mr. SK Goyal,
Executive Director, BHEL R&D shares the accomplishment and the
priorities in R&D of his company.
How important is R&D in the scheme of things at BHEL? (Is it seen as an appendage or as an important component?) Can you give some examples of R&D influencing the company strategy?
BHEL is a major Government of India enterprise which lays a great deal of importance on developing contemporary technologies through in-house R&D efforts. As you may be aware BHEL spent Rs 253 crores during fiscal 2006-07 on in-house R&D which was nearly 66% higher than the previous year. Significantly during the same period a turnover of Rs 2720 crores has been achieved from commercialization of products, system and services developed through in-house R&D, which was about 14.5% of the total BHEL turnover of Rs 18739 crores.
The company’s “Strategic Plan 2012”, formulated to enable us to increase our turnover from the present $ 4 billion to $ 10 billion, lays great emphasis on the enhancement of the engineering and technological outlook of the organization with focus on innovation and R&D, where R&D budget is slated for an increase of at least six times by the year 2012. R&D is expected to play a major role in the engineering and technological propositions being made by BHEL to meet the 11th Five Year Plan target of 78000 MW of additional power generation capacity. The Strategic Plan also focuses on, among other things, setting up more centers of Excellence in more technological areas where BHEL has achieved distinct competitive edge, as well strengthening the existing ones. As of now five COEs are operational fully with state-of-the-art facilities.
What are the major on going R&D projects at BHEL?
Some of our major projects with over Rs one crore investment taken up in the current year
include:
Development of high-efficiency thin (~200-300 micron) crystalline silicon solar cells
Other than these are many similar projects at our manufacturing units for prototype demonstration of products and systems. We are also involved in supporting our manufacturing plants and project sites in solving some of their engineering and technological problems, which crop up from time to time while meeting the new market requirements with latest features.
What is the duration of the individual projects run on an average?
The major thrust in Corporate R&D project would be on projects leading to the development of products and systems, technology enhancement to bridge the know-why gaps and providing support to plants in improvement and enhancing business of existing products. To achieve these objectives R&D projects are taken up based on the requirement of product centers/units to cater to the market needs.
In general projects are taken in the following categories:
Where does the BHEL R&D fit in the Indian engineering R&D scenario?
BHEL is one of the pioneering engineering enterprises in the country to set up a Corporate R&D division. Realising that continuous technological upgradation is the lifeline of any engineering organization, BHEL has accorded utmost importance to R&D and has worked out a series of checks and systems to streamline the process of carrying out R&D projects. R&D in BHEL has reached a position of eminence among the contemporary engineering and technological quarters. Our officials are being increasingly called upon to take part in several technical initiatives by various professional bodies. Our engineers routinely take part in many international conferences and seminars, by presenting papers and in some cases they have even chaired technical sessions. Our company is represented in several forums that spearhead the country’s science and technology (S&T) programmes.
We actively take part in projects coordinated by governmental agencies like, the Union Ministries for Power, New and Renewable Energy, Communication and Information Technology, and Railway, as well as Department of science and Technology (DST) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), for selective developmental activities in power systems, traction equipment, renewable energy and frontier technologies. Some of our R&D projects aimed at improvement of power quality and energy conservation including energy loss prevention are coordinated by Confederation of Indian Industry’s Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (CIITIFAC).
We were the recipients of several national awards and honours in recognition of our outstanding efforts in industrial R&D, the latest being the Meritorious Award for R&D and Innovation instituted by Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), which was given to us in recognition of our commendable performance in developing innovative products and systems through in-house R&D. One of our general Managers –Dr-Sivakumar- was honoured with the Eminent Engineer title in recognition of his lifetime achievements, by the Institution of Engineers (India), Pune centre. Another General Manager – Dr Chandraker – has been selected for the Mechanical Engineering Design Award by the National Design and Research Forum. Our Dr Mohana Rao, Deputy Manager who is working on gas insulated substation projects, has been selected for the young Engineer Award 2007 by the Indian National Academy of Engineering.
All these prove that we are not only a prominent player in the R&D scenario in the Indian engineering sector, but we are also making a mark in it.
Could you give some examples of BHEL being able to do big breakthrough due to the contributions from R&D?
It is quite obvious that unlike the consumer electronics durable segments and various critical technological areas, like space and defence, we do not make stand-alone technological breakthrough. Our triumphs are never detached from the mainstream technological achievements of the company. If you look at most of our business successes in the recent past, you will find R&D’s fingerprints on them. Some of the significant achievements made by our company recently with contributions from R&D are given in the following paragraphs.
BHEL received the first order for an 80 MVAR, 400 kV controlled shunt reactor (CSR) from Maharashtra state Electricity Transmission Company Limited. The first-of-its-kind in the world CSR was developed by Corporate R&D. BHEL has commissioned the largest vertical coal grinding bowl mill in India at Chandrapur Thermal Power Station of Maharashtra State Electricity Board. This mill called “BHEL 280 Mill” has a capacity to grind 91 tonnes/hour of coal compared to its nearest capacity mill which can grind only of 77 tonnes/hour. The mill is operating in the most demanding mill position grinding coal with 14% high moisture. This mill has been designed with a number of technological improvements developed jointly by Corporate R&D and BHEL, Ramachandrapuram. BHEL has secured a letter of indent (LOI) for supply of compact space-saving 132 kV gas insulated substation (GIS), developed indigenously by Corporate R&D, for use at AP Transco’s 32-50 MVA substation in Hyderabad.
Corporate R&D has developed a number of permanent magnet machines (PMM) with high-energy permanent magnet (PM) materials to meet the requirements of defence sector, space applications, transportation and power sector. Hitherto only some leading manufacturers were in possession of the design and technology to manufacture such machines. This novel technology has been developed with totally indigenous efforts and a number of variants developed have been commercial successes. The latest development has been the compact 65 KW PMM which is suitable for use as a pilot exciter for 500 MW turbine generator (TG) sets as well as 800 MW TGs which are categorized as power sets with supercritical parameters.
A maintenance controller developed by us on the “ OMEGA” control and instrumentation (C&I) platform, using state-of-the-art computer network with a server and client technique, has been supplied for Western Mountain Power Station of General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL), near Tripoli. It helps the customer in performing asset management functions of the gas turbine based power plant. Gravimetric feeder controllers (GFC) units, which deliver required coal to the pulveriser to meet the load, by measuring coal mass and controlling the feeder speed, are being supplied by BHEL Tiruchirapalli unit to thermal power plants. These were being imported prior to this.
For Indian railway, we have developed a new generation 320 KW traction alternator with hotel load companion alternator to be used on 3600 HP BG diesel electric locomotives. Also , as part of BHEL’s efforts to provide modern, safe and more efficient transportation solutions, a state-of-the-art, insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based three-phase drive system for 700 HP diesel electric locomotives has been developed in-house for supply to Indian Railways.
We are in the final stage of executing a prestigious order worth more than Rs 100 crores, for the design, supply and commissioning of automated storage and retrival system (ASRS) in 13 warehouses at Central Ordnance Depot at Kanpur, for handling 106000 tonnes of goods for the army like uniforms, shoes, tents and headgears, in more than 126000 storage bins.
Can you please give some examples of the R&D projects which achieved considerable cost saving or technological improvement?
If you look at the overall profile of our R&D projects, they all aim at generating some kind of benefit to the organization, and in turn, to the end users. The benefits range from cost reduction, resource optimization, ease of operation, value addition, reliability enhancement, to macro-level factors like import substitution and energy efficiency. Ultimately all these aim at cost saving – whether it is due to reduction in the use of materials, reduction in time schedules, cutting down on weight and size, use of less energy.
One typical example is the gas insulated substation (GIS). GIS is an alternative to the conventional open yard substation that form an integral part of the power distribution system. GIS occupies only about 7% of the space occupied by conventional open yard substation, hey are immune to climatic uncertainties, high pollution and seismic disturbances, they can be installed indoors leaving the top floors of the substation building free for other uses and their metal enclosed modules minimize extreme mechanical, electrical and thermal stresses during service. The end result of all these radical innovations is considerable economic saving in terms of cost of real estate, time taken for installation/commissioning, maintenance and ingenious use of space. Similarly if you take the case of surface coatings, you will realize that an enormous amount of savings can be achieved by applying our protective coating techniques on components that are subjected to degradation due to corrosion, erosion and wear. Many hydro power stations, especially those in the Himalayan region have greatly benefited from our coating technologies since the life of their critical components is extended and the scope for failures are minimized. Our permanent magnet machines are major developments which not only offer noteworthy technological benefits, but also bring about substantial savings due to its better reliability, weight and size reduction and maintenance-free operation.
In short, every R & D project invariably results in a benefit that brings about substantial cost reduction to the end user. In some cases the initial investment may be counterbalanced by the long-term economic benefits that accrue from the development made by us. A case to illustrate this is the permanent magnet machines that we have developed. Though these cost more than the conventional motors, their design which incorporates high energy permanent magnets, makes the machines very reliable, efficient, compact and light-weight, which when translated into economic terms results in significant cost reduction over a period of time.
Are there achievements of BHEL R&D that could be showcased at the international level?
The achievements of Corporate R&D are indeed more company-specific, and on a general level, may be more India-specific. Nevertheless we have made a mark in some overseas projects. Based on the rich experience in working on coal combustion and gasification technologies for over two decades, BHEL bagged the first ever-overseas engineering services contract, from ESKOM, the largest power producer in South Africa, for setting up a research facility for pressurized fluidized bed gasification and combustion, to evaluate in characteristics of South African coal. This order also included the training of ESKOM engineers at BHEL’s facility.
Apart from these most of the overseas orders that our company has bagged will have some contribution in the form of some technological value addition through R&D.
Would BHEL R&D collaborate with other organizations to accomplish its targets?
Corporate R&D associates actively with other scientific organizations, national laboratories and academic institutions for sharing the expertise and other resources. These will be in the form of cooperative research and sponsoring consultancy assignments by way of factors like memorandum of understanding (MOU) or funding, in order to achieve the objectives and targets.
Does BHEL R&D outsource any of its R&D or does it accomplish all that are required by it self?
In general outsourcing is restricted to the joint R&D collaborations with other scientific organizations, national laboratories and academic institutions with whom we are associated. We have a BHEL Chair at Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and we take consultancy from many national and international institutes of higher learning.
What is the IPR (Patents) portfolio of BHEL? Has the company been able to earn income out of licensing any of the patented technologies?
Since all our efforts are towards strengthening the engineering and technological foundations of our company, we zealously guard our intellectual property and apply them only for the benefit of our products and services. We have, at present, 43 patents granted, 73 patents ready for grant and 330 patents under examination. These figures include seven foreign patents that have been granted and presently in force as well as four foreign patent applications that are under examination. In addition, we have registered a design and also several copyrights. Patents have come from the technology we provide to our customers.
We make money through commercializing new technologies ourselves and not by licensing them to others. Patents the company has also come from other centers and not necessarily from BHEL R&D.
BHEL total R&D is considerable and it has been in the top list of 10 companies for long time. Yet, the R&D intensity is around 1% only. And in 2006 the intensity has comedown to 1.02% of the sales from 1.16% in the previous year. Is the investment seen as adequate by the company particularly in the knowledge economy that we are talking of
now?
As I mentioned earlier, the investment in R&D as a percentage of the turnover is on the increase especially in the last two years. But if you look at the larger picture, Rs. 253 crores for R&D in last fiscal is pretty impressive, and this is a whopping 66% more than the R&D spend in the previous year. The company’s “Strategic Plan – 2012” also envisages many-fold increase in this spending. What we at Corporate R&D are looking forward to is a prudent and result-oriented action plan for R&D where the focus will be on maintaining the leading position to offer technologically current and competitive products and services to customers by assimilation, adaptation and upgradation of technologies in core and strategic areas, judicious acquisition of state-of-the-art technologies in select areas from available sources as well as technology scanning for advancements in relevant areas and adoption of the same for our products and services. In this manner major linkages can be established and these will enable us to cruise along the knowledge highway, imbibing the skills and expertise available and fine-tune them to suit our requirements. All along we have to keep our finger on the pulse of the company to understand its technological requirements. This is perhaps the major difference between a pure sciences oriented R&D organization and BHEL’s Corporate R&D division. Hence the quantum of investment is not particularly relevant here. However, whenever there is an unforeseen necessity to increase the allocation for meeting the needs a specific R&D project, we can always seek additional funds from the Board.
What can we expect in the near and long term future from BHEL R&D?
In earlier years though our turnover had increased this did not reflect in our R&D budget. Now we are making the correction. A number of focused projects and setting up of new Centres of Excellence (COE) with the participation of multidisciplinary matrix teams from Corporate R&D groups and manufacturing units would be taken up. Corporate R&D has also embarked on some frontier technology projects that will catapult BHEL to the position of a technology leader. These projects will prepare the company to effortlessly cruise along the vast expanse of advanced technologies that will be global benchmarks in the future and relevant for the company for sustaining its predominant position in the market. These projects will also take into consideration their eco-friendly characteristics, which is one of the most critical factors that influence all the activities of BHEL.
In line with the new “Strategic Plan 2012”, suitable action programmes shall be drawn up in association with units so as to increase the R&D contribution by at least six times.
We will have a prominent role to play in these programmes, which will pave the way towards achieving contemporary technological advantage in the global markets. We will play a catalyzing role as coordinators of the R&D activities of the units with a view to integrate them with the macro-level engineering and technological initiatives of the company.
We have the capacity to absorb in investments in R&D, as we are now into making the prototype of the products. We are working on the frontier technologies and these call for capital investments. Super conducting applications, hydrogen energy, solar film, IGCC, nanotechnology, are some of the new technologies we would be investing in the coming years.
How does BHEL R&D compare with your competitors like Siemens etc.?
For all practical purposes we are at par with our competitors in matters of technology, controls, etc. Only disadvantage with us is some materials and technologies will have to be imported. When the country has the infrastructure to produce large forgings we will be in a position to beat the other players. But excepting for super critical technology, we are just as good as other players in the field. We are collaborating with Siemens for the turbines, boilers etc. Even when we borrow technology from our competitors, we indigenise the same to suit our local conditions. For instance, our coal is different in terms of its efficiency and we need different technology to address this.
Has migration of technical manpower towards IT sector affected BHEL R&D?
Yes, certainly we are affected. The company has come out with a plan to counter this. We are introducing performance based pay system. The changes have made their impact. Many of our engineers who had left us midway want to comeback and we are making a provision for this.
We take postgraduate engineers and the challenges we provide on job are of a different nature. Our engineers are sent abroad or deputed to improve their qualifications. Some work on their doctoral degree while on job.
What is your impression on incentives given by the GoI for R&D?
I do not feel government is giving big incentives on R&D to commercial organizations. Some of the concession we have got has come through the advanced research institutes we have set up like: Pollution Research Institute and Welding Research Institute. For the investment we make on R&D, which measures up to Rs. 300 crores there are no concessions. We do R&D so that we can market our products with advanced features to beat our competitors. Business environment dictates our research. Customers today want advanced technology so some of the environment concerns can be taken care of. Better features are expected in turbine, controls, boiler, so that the power is generated with new norms in place, efficiency.
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