Bipin Satya

NBPPL is a joint venture company of NTPC Ltd and BHEL created 12 years back for taking up EPC contracts and spares manufacturing for power plants in India and abroad. My appointment on the board in the company gave me opportunities to set up goals for me as well as for the company with the experiences I gathered in my last 35 years in the field as well as new horizons for the company based on the application of development activities I pursued in my past career. Based on these experiences and learning tools available with me, we could make some stretched targets for the company on financial fronts as well as production areas. One of our main aim is to take the company turnover to USD 100 Million in this financial year and ensure supply chain health for timely deliveries of spares to our esteemed customers. We have planned and executed some spares development orders where in high technology based activities such as reverse engineering, manufacturing tolerances, total CNC planning / machining are involved. We have been instrumental to offer complete solutions for revival of power plants with different technologies, trouble shooting as well as betterment activities bridging the gaps on efficiencies and availability. We are hopeful and determined to increased customer satisfaction with timely deliveries and more emphasis on performance improvement strategies.

NTPC Ltd has been a jewel in the Government of India owned public limited companies. The presence of NTPC Ltd on global platform has been always a dream of Indian Government as well as top management. In this direction, I was entrusted the responsibility as head to take company business activities on global level and take up financial stakes in power assets abroad. My responsibilities also included taking up complete operation and maintenance assignments as well as trouble shooting / performance improvement jobs abroad. We have also been instrumental in reviewing power purchase agreements and suggesting tariff costing strategies based on complete technical audits. We have signed Memorandum of Understanding with world players e.g. eDF of France, Masdar of Abu Dhabi U.A.E., Nebras of Doha Qatar, Kharomika of Egypt for joint partnership in Power Projects specially in Renewable energy as well as renovation and modernization of existing conventional fuel power plants. NTPC Ltd has been active partner with International Solar Alliance and has been associated in development of solar projects in African continent. In my tenure, NTPC Ltd has been scouting global opportunities mainly in MENA region and African continent and acquired substantial gains in expanding our business horizon on global front.

NTPC Ltd got Operation and Maintenance contract for 210 MW gas turbine power plant for six years in Dhaka, Bangladesh which was World Bank funded. As plant manager, I ensured that systematic adoption of Operation and Maintenance systems so that high availability of power plant was ensured always over 90%. The capacity of the plant was augmented through adoption of universal best practices and a rise of 11.5 MW was achieved. Under my leadership, various measures of reducing the shut down period as well as quick parametric analysis for avoiding forced shutdowns were adopted. We have been very sensitive to the environment and took various disposal corrective measures to prevent contamination for the surrounding water bodies as well as air quality. The training inputs at regular interval through well designed programs has been our focused area to prepare for the smooth transition after six years of contract completion. A very good response from our local stakeholders could make me more responsive to their requirements and felt us motivated for innovative thinking with goal oriented management.

NTPC Ltd got an assignment from Government of NCT Delhi company PPCL for project management including operation and maintenance services for 1500 MW advanced class gas turbines based combined cycle power plant in Delhi. As leader of the team, I ensured proper implementation of best practices and systems adoption in order to make the project availability as per international quality standards. The trouble shooting has been the major requirement for initial commissioning and subsequent operation where in my experience as gas turbine power station specialist came to my advantage. My experiences for bringing strategic interventions in project management also brought substantial time savings and new schedule compression techniques. I have been quite fortunate to got the opportunities for in depth analysis and decision making. The timely execution could save costs related to project delays and ensured timely returns through operation commencements.

NTPC Ltd has almost 55000 MW of coal based generation and fuel security through acquisition of coal mines abroad was considered one of the options. I was made head of the coal mine acquisition abroad department in Delhi Corporate Center. We scouted for many coal assets across Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Mozambique and some other countries in African continent. We hired a number of international Bankers like SBI Caps, Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank ,Bank of America / M&A agencies like Macquarie, E&Y, Deloitte etc. We have progressed well and identified some companies having assets in Australia as well as Indonesia for take overs. In these transactions, I got analytical skills in financial areas and got acquainted to various models for costing and valuation of assets. The resource management along with sensitivity analysis on levelized costs in the long run could give me additional feather in my cap.

NTPC Ltd has more than 6000 MW gas turbine based power plants in its portfolio across India. I worked in centralized operation services in Corporate Center as gas turbine specialist. I was responsible for trouble shooting, overhaul supervision as well as performance testing / monitoring across all gas turbine based combined cycle power plants of NTPC Ltd. During my tenure as gas turbine specialist, we developed a number of softwares for performance monitoring, availability enhancement and capacity augmentation. A number of technical audits were conducted across different projects including outside NTPC Ltd and best practices as well as systematic intervention strategies were compiled / circulated for better efficiency and machine availability. I was entrusted responsibility to head the team for conducting performance testing and recommendations for improvement for 11 power stations of Saudi Electricity Company across all regions of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I was also entrusted responsibility to head the team for conducting performance and guarantee testing for one of the power plant in Kuwait city installed with aero-derivative gas turbines. I have been instrumental in bringing out innovative thinking for increasing machine availability through predictive maintenance techniques.

NTPC Ltd has been in fast expanding mode during the period of my induction into the organization and subsequent growth in hierarchy in technical areas. Following are the responsibilities which were entrusted to me and with my commitment I could deliver the results expected out of my approach of working:

1. Erection Supervision of power plant equipments

2. Quality plan preparation and implementation

3. Planning and monitoring of activities for project management

4. Operation of power plant - Desk operation

5. Routine maintenance of power plant equipments

6. Major inspections and overhauls of power plant equipments

7. Planning for machine availability and spares management

The exposure to technical activities with engineering background made me good manager with wider variety of tools available to me for effective decision making.