BHEL seeks Technology Collaborator for Industry 4.0 business

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from Indian IT majors willing to collaborate with BHEL through a long-term Technology Collaboration Agreement (TCA) to enable BHEL to carry out the design, development, customization, testing and implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions for various business segments viz. power plants, process plants, transmission & distribution systems, defence, mobility and other applications like factory automation etc. 

Schedule of EoI & Contact details:

The schedule of EoI shall be as follows:

BHEL is a leading state-owned company wherein Government of India is holding 63.17% of its equity. BHEL is an integrated power plant equipment manufacturer and India’s largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise of its kind, catering to the core infrastructure sectors of Indian economy viz. energy, transportation, heavy engineering industry, renewable & non-conventional energy and Defence.

• Foreseeing the Industry 4.0 revolution, BHEL has been developing its own solution space to help the Indian Power industry move towards the adoption of Industry 4.0. Apart from other solutions, BHEL has developed and successfully implemented its own solution for remote monitoring of fleet of power plants, known as Remote Monitoring & Diagnostic Services system (RMDS) to facilitate remote monitoring, diagnostics and predictive/prescriptive maintenance of Thermal Power Plant assets, employing plant level digital twin capabilities. 
• Besides this, BHEL is strategically positioned in offering Industry 4.0 solutions to its customers, based on its already proven comprehensive capabilities in the plant Instrumentation and Control area, namely DCS and HMI Equipment & Systems. BHEL has also got capabilities of making Intelligent P&IDs, 3D models and experience on documentation management systems for power plant assets.
• Similar to the major contributions that were made in the Industry 3.0 era, BHEL once again poises itself to play a major role in the Industry 4.0 arena in a significant way. In this pursuit, in addition to RMDS, BHEL is also foraying into other contemporary Industry 4.0 solutions including:
  • Reliability Centric Maintenance (RCM)
  • Application of IIoT (AII)
  • Digital Worker (DW) comprising of wearable devices for implementing Augmented Reality (AR) / Virtual Reality (VR) based solutions & Real Time Location Tracking
  • Asset Information Management (AIM) which includes Intelligent P&IDs & Document Management System
• Towards this objective, BHEL has decided to establish a dedicated Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Industry 4.0 at BHEL premises with a vision of making it the indigenous hub for developing, piloting and commercializing cutting-edge digital solutions for industries.

Broad Scope of cooperation:

Towards addressing the emerging and futuristic needs of Industry 4.0 in synergistic way, BHEL is seeking Expression of Interest from Indian IT majors for a long term (preferably 7 to 10 years or as mutually agreed) Technology Collaboration Agreement (TCA) with regard to Industry 4.0 solutions for various business segments viz. power plants, process plants, transmission & distribution systems, defence, mobility and other applications like factory automation etc. 

• The objective of this EoI is to select a suitable Technology Collaborator who can provide Industry 4.0 tools and solutions to enable BHEL to address Industry 4.0 business opportunities in India and abroad. During the validity of TCA, the selected collaborator shall share complete technical knowhow & know-why of Industry 4.0 business with BHEL to enable it to address different segments of the industry 4.0 business opportunities. Prospective collaborator shall also grant BHEL right to reuse and modify/enhance all the design, features and functionalities of software platform etc. after expiry of TCA. Selected Collaborator shall also support BHEL in augmenting Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Industry 4.0 at BHEL premises.
• The TCA will provide an opportunity to the collaborator(s) to work with BHEL which is India’s one of the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise, who has got an installed base of more than 190 GW of various types of power plants worldwide and who has proved its mettle as a strong and reliable supplier of various products and systems for core sectors of economy viz. Power, industry, transportation, defence and oil & gas etc.
• Interested reputed Indian IT majors with proven Industry 4.0 solutions are invited to submit their offer in response to this EoI, as per indicative scope of TCA given in Annexure-1.
• Upon receipt of responses against this EoI, BHEL will review the responses to ascertain suitability of the offer and shortlist prospective collaborators for further discussions. Detailed discussions on techno-commercial and other terms and conditions to finalize the TCA shall be held with the shortlisted prospective collaborators. The detailed terms and conditions for such agreement shall be mutually agreed upon.

Desired Technological Capabilities:

The Indian IT major shall have proven track record of deliveries and capabilities, in the following areas, but not limited to:

• Big Data and Analytics.
• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML)
• Cloud based Technologies
• Industrial Internet of Things(IIOT)
• 3D and Asset Integration Management
• Augmented and Virtual Reality
• Real-Time Tracking Systems
• Cyber Security
• Industrial Wireless Networking
• Robotics

Coupled with the above technological capabilities in a dedicated setup, the Indian IT major shall have been equipped with experienced and dedicated teams with skill set in the areas of Software Development/ Embedded Systems Development/ Modelling & Data science, Data Communication protocols, etc.

The Indian IT major shall have been equipped with relevant partner / OEM Eco-system which is readily brought forth for BHEL’s solution delivery without any limitations.

Source: BHEL-EOI | Image Credit: BHEL