Professional Profile of G K Agrawal

G K Agrawal

Professional profile of G K Agrawal Retd. Sr. DGM, BHEL, B.SC. B.Tech (HBTU)

Total 37 years (May 1978- Sep 2015), Worked at the Electronics division of BHEL Bangalore in the engineering department and worked on electronic cards, power electronics, control systems, traction, power factor, reactive power, SVC, HVDC, thyristor control, series compensator, flicker and unbalance load control for ARC furnace Harmonic filter analysis, traction control for electric train, etc.

Provided extensive academic mentoring during early career years, accumulating over 5000 hours of structured teaching experience.

Major products and projects completed

1 – Design of Control circuits for speed control of the D.C. Motor using a Thyristor. Final year B.Tech. Project.

2 – The design of the Solid State Reactive Power Factor controller for capacitor switching. New product for BHEL.

3 – Solid State alarm annunciator. New product for BHEL.

4 – Design of logic modules, delay modules, etc.

5 – Development of the optical triggering technology used for high-voltage Thyristor valve. First time in India.

6 – Pulse width modulator-based G.T.O. Controlled regulator for speed control of the motors/voltage control. New product to BHEL (1983-84)

7 – Sequence controller for 11 kV Static VAR Compensator (SVC).

This equipment is used in SVC systems to switch ON/OFF automatically various equipment in the desired sequence.

8 – Development of Base electronic panel for NHVDC project, first time in India. (New technology)

9 – Design and development of Thyristor monitoring for the NHVDC project. First time in India (New Technology).

10 – Development of the Valve Electronics for NHVDC project, First time in India (New Technology).

11 – Design of the Base electronics and Valve mini simulator

12 – Development and design of 3kV impulse generator, New product to BHEL

13 – Controller for the SVC system suitable for a balanced load for the Vizag Steel Plant.

14 – Development of a controller for the SVC system suitable for unbalanced load for the Alloy steel plant, Durgapur. First time in India. New product for BHEL.

15 – Design and development of the controller for the SVC system suitable for the AC Arc Furnace application. First time in India (New product to BHEL).

The electric arc furnace is used in steel plants to melt scraps. The furnace creates problems like imbalance in the power system, harmonics, flicker, etc. To contain these problems, SVC is used. The controller so designed is one of the pieces of equipment required in the SVC system. The controller is used to control P.F., unbalance and flicker automatically in a system with the help of a thyristor-controlled reactor. In one of the projects, this controller is used to control a 100MVAR reactor in a 220KV system.

This controller was developed at a cost of 15L, which avoided importing a controller costing more than 2 Crores. This controller was a big project and required a numberof PCB developments.

16 – Development of a controller for the SVC system for the DC ARC FURNACE. New product for BHEL.

This product is used for the SVC systems required in a DC arc furnace-type load. The controller designed in this project will control the thyristor-controlled reactor, which helps in controlling P.F. and voltage fluctuation in the power system.

17 – Design of a 7 kV Impulse generator for a capacitive load. New product for BHEL.

This impulse generator is used to apply switching impulses across the capacitive load. The generator can provide a variable output up to 7KV.

18 – Development of a controller for a controlled shunt reactor (First time in India), New product to BHEL.

A controlled shunt reactor (CSR) is a high-impedance transformer. The impedance of the transformer can be controlled using thyristor switches. It is possible to control the voltage and P.F. of the line by connecting CSR across the line. The controller will measure various parameters of the line and control the CSR to improve the voltage/P.F.

19 – Development of a controller for the Flexible AC transmission system (FACT) for the First time in India, a new product for BHEL (Part-time only).

20 – EMTP system study for harmonics for high current (12kA to 55kA) rectifier for 3 contracts.

21 – Power factor improvement for the industrial LT loads.

A number of electronic modules were developed for the above projects.

Paper published

1 – “Protection of HVDC thyristor valve”. Three three-day conferences on power system protection. Jan. 11-13, 1988 – CPRI Bangalore.

2 – “Design and testing of thyristor valve for Indian National HVDC Experimental line Project”. SEPOPE Brazil August 21-25, 1989.

3 – “Thyristor valve for National HVDC Experimental line project”. 2^nd International Seminar on Industrial Electronics Control and Instrumentation, September 1989, New Delhi, IEEMA.

4 – “Design and testing of SVC controller”. CBIP Seminar at Jabalpur, Sep 1993

5 – Reactive power controller in BHEL Journal