Hitachi and BGR to Form JVs to Exploit Indian Power Plant Market

Hitachi Power Europe, a Hitachi Subsidiary, and BGR Energy Systems will establish two joint ventures to design, manufacture, sell and service steam turbines/generators and boilers in the Indian market.

The ventures will supply power plant equipment for super-critical thermal power generation in the 660MW to 1,000MW range.

Following increases in power demand in India with its rapid economic growth, power generation is expected to increase in the next few decades.

To meet this demand, India is expected to build thermal power plants capable of generating 15GW of electricity per annum and become a major market.

As per the agreement, the steam turbine and generator joint venture will be named BGR Turbines, with BGR Energy Systems owning 74% and Hitachi the remaining 26% stake.

The boiler joint venture will be called BGR Boilers, with BGR holding 70% and Hitachi Power 30% of the venture.

BGR Turbines and BGR Boilers will be established in August 2010 and together they will invest about JPY50bn ($584m) to construct new manufacturing facilities in Tamil Nadu.

Both facilities will begin production in 2012 and the output will be ramped up in stages to eventually manufacture steam turbines, generators and boilers for producing 3GW of electricity per annum.

BGR Turbines and BGR Boilers aim to generate revenues of about JPY100bn ($1.1bn) combined in 2017.