KSB expects to start delivery of a major order placed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) by April next year.
The Pune-headquartered KSB Ltd (formerly KSB Pumps), in an investor presentation, noted that delivery of the first pump-motor unit for the Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP) of NPCIL will be made by April 16, 2022, latest.
KSB has been mandated to supply eight pumps and ten motors that would form part of the reactor cooling pumps (RSR 400/2) for pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) associated with the upcoming Gorakhpur nuclear power plant of NPCIL. The total value of the pump-motor order is around Rs.400 crore.
Also known as GHAVP, the nuclear power plant will be equipped with four units of 700-mw PHWRs. The nuclear power station is taking up on 550 ha of land at Gorakhpur, in Faridabad district of Haryana.
KSB said that it was facing pandemic-induced delays in the order execution. The expected delivery date of the first unit (April 16, 2022) would mean a delay of four months from the contractual date. The second unit will be delivered by April 16, 2023 latest. One unit referred here stands for four pumps and five motors.
As of May 3, 2021, the overall progress on the order was 38 per cent, as against the planned 57 per cent.
When the order was placed on KSB , in January 2018, deliveries were scheduled to begin in June 2021 with targeted completion for the full order being March 2023.
Meanwhile, KSB , has deployed special-purpose machinery—sourced from reputed suppliers like Hirth (Germany), ONA (Spain) and Eco-roll (Germany)—to fulfill the GHVAP order.
Wider range for nuclear power applications
It may be recalled that on April 30, 2021, KSB Pumps announced that it indigenously developed main boiler feed water pump (BFP) and booster pump (BP) for NPCIL, for use with 700-mw PHWRs. These two pumps added to an already wide range of pumps like primary pressurizing pump, shutdown cooling pump, auxiliary boiler feed pump, etc, for nuclear power applications.
A KSB spokesperson said that GHAVP would also require BFP and BP but these have yet to be ordered by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. Each power unit of GHAVP is expected to require three sets of boiler feed pumps and booster pumps. Of these three sets, two would be operating sets while one would be on stand-by. As noted earlier, GHAVP will have four power units of 700-mw each.
Featured photograph shows the manufacturing facility of KSB’s energy pumps division. The facility is located at Shirwal in Pune, Maharashtra.
