Bharat Heavy Electrically Ltd (BHEL) is planning to re-enter wind turbine manufacturing space in the next three months. The public sector power equipment major said it was planning to join hands with a foreign technology partner for the re-entry. BHEL also said it was in the final stage of finalizing another foreign partner to bid for water desalination projects in the country, according to a senior official.

A Chandra Abu, general manager in-charge, BHEL Ran pet unit, through which BHEL will re-enter the wind turbine manufacturing, said the company was likely to finalize the technology partner in the next three months. The unit’s existing fabrication facility will be used to manufacture towers and nozzles, while it will take another two years to set up a wind blade manufacturing facility near the existing unit in Ran pet. BHEL that used to manufacture 250 Kw wind turbine generators earlier and discontinued it due to drop in the demands.

The company is now looking at manufacturing 1.5-2 Mw machines. “For now we will buy blades from outside, while towers will be sourced from our subcontractors,” said Chandrababu. BHEL will invest around Rs 50 crore for the re-entry. “We will focus on equipment, commission and maintenance for our customers, who will be predominately are public sector companies,” said Chandrababu. As part of diversification, BHEL is in the process of finalizing a foreign partner for its desalination business. “Currently, we have a pre-qualification capability to set up desalination project up to five million gallons per day.

The new partner will bring technology and qualification capability to bid for higher capacity projects,” he said. “We have identified the partner and will sign the agreement in a month.” He declined to reveal the company’s name. For the year ended March 31, 2010, the unit has reported a turnover of Rs 2,530 crore, as compared to Rs 2,007 crore in 2008-09, an increase of 26 per cent. The company had set a target to close the year ended March 31, 2011, with a turn over of Rs 3,000 crore.