Valmet showcased a solution to enhance thermal power flexibility and efficiency at Flex India 2025

Gathering industry leaders in New Delhi

The Flex India conference, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), was held on August 5–6, 2025, at the India Habitat Centre. The event brought together industry experts, power generators, regulators, technology suppliers, and academics to address the growing need for flexible operation in India’s energy sector.

Industry leaders gathered at the Flex India 2025 conference to discuss advancing flexible operations in India’s energy sector.

Driving flexible operation in thermal power

Flexible operation as a term engages power units to very dynamic load changes (4% MCR per minute) to compensate generation (or lack of it) from solar panels during dawn and dusk. For the second year participating in Flex India, Valmet contributed to the dialogue, showcasing state-of-the-art solutions that enhance flexibility for pulverized coal (PC) boilers and enable thermal power plants to ramp up and down reliably, maintaining grid stability.

Proven success with Indian power producers

Valmet’s experts, Senior Sales Manager Amit Rastogi and Senior Solution Manager Pawel Kalbarczyk delivered an engaging presentation on “Advanced Process Control (APC) for Flexible Operation Improvement.”

Valmet experts Amit Rastogi and Pawel Kalbarczyk shared insights on “Advanced Process Control (APC) for Flexible Operation Improvement. Amit is currently presenting, with Pawel next on the left.

They showcased Valmet’s leadership in flexible operation, highlighting 12 highly successful APC-based implementations completed in 2024 in close collaboration with strategic partner BHEL, demonstrating real-world impact and reliability across India’s thermal power sector.

Valmet and BHEL’s collaboration now supports flexible operation for more than 4,260 MWe, with an additional 4,000 MWe under commissioning in 2025. End customers WBPDC, DVC, and KPCL also shared their success stories, demonstrating how Valmet’s Flexible operation solution has enabled them to meet grid requirements reliably.

Valmet and BHEL teams at FLEX India 2025, sharing insights on flexible energy solutions.

Innovations for the future

Valmet also introduced its Advanced Process Control roadmap, which integrates an acoustic pyrometer for flue gas exit temperature measurement, combustion symmetry monitoring, and leak detection. These advancements help address challenges such as boiler tube leaks, degradation, flame instability, slagging, coal duct choking, and fan stalling - critical issues in flexible operation.

By combining these monitoring tools with real-time data analysis, Valmet enables power plants to respond faster to dynamic load changes, reduce unplanned downtime, and optimize fuel consumption. Looking ahead, these innovations create opportunities for smarter integration with renewable energy sources, helping thermal power plants operate efficiently and reliably in an increasingly variable energy landscape.

Meeting India’s renewable energy challenge

With the rise of renewable energy (RE), energy supply in India peaks during the day (peak generation) resulting in the need for sharp ramp down by the thermal power plants. While during peak demand hours mostly in the evenings, the need for the thermal power plants is to ramp up fast. As a result, most thermal power plants in India are expected to operate in the range of 40% power level to 100% as per grid requirement.

Speakers urged that these requirements need solutions beyond two-shifting of boiler operations to avoid issues like boiler tube leakages, boiler degradation, flame instability, slagging, coal duct choking, and fan stalling. The conference also provided a peek into the potential role of utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and digital twins.

Our team is ready to help. Get in touch with Amit, Pawel, or Dixit for expert guidance on flexible operation:

Pawel Kalbarczyk
Senior Solution Manager, Advanced Process Controls
pawel.kalbarczyk@valmet.com

Amit Rastogi
Senior Sales Manager, Advanced Process Controls in India
amit.rastogi@valmet.com

Dixit K.C.
Business Manager, Acoustic pyrometers and cameras
dixit.kc@valmet.com