NCR's thermal units to miss deadline for curbing pollution this winter: RTI

Over 33 power stations in the NCR were given two years' extension from the original deadline of 2017 to install emissions-control technology, but most are yet to award tenders, reveals RTI

Every winter, residents of North India are forced to live and work in toxic air conditions, with pollution levels rising up to 20 times the safe limits. Among the government measures that could have brought some respite from such a situation this year, was a plan to contain emissions of toxic pollutants from the thermal power stations in the National Capital Region (NCR) within legally safe limits by December 2019. 

The power stations, however, are likely to continue to pollute beyond legal limits for several months beyond the December deadline, information accessed through a Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed. 

The December deadline for the NCR power plants was decided after the original rules for the thermal power emission were already diluted by the government in 2017. According to the Union Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change rules, notified in 2015, over 400 thermal power stations in the country were legally required to bring down emissions of toxic pollutants within strict limits by December 2017. But, the ministry later allowed the NCR plants to pollute beyond legal limits till up to December 2019, and most power stations outside NCR up to 2022. 

The environment ministry allowed these extensions following a demand by the thermal power industry and at the behest of the Union Ministry of Power, without amending the rules. Amending the rules would have required it to hold public consultations. 

Data from the Central Electricity Authority, which is monitoring the implementation of the norms, now shows that most power stations in the NCR are set to miss even this extended deadline by several months. 

According to the revised plan, 33 power stations in the NCR and six stations in other ‘critically polluted areas’ of the country were required to bring down the emissions of hazardous Sulphur oxide within legal limit by December 31 this year. The remaining 400 units got more time. Of these 33 power stations, only two in the NCR have installed the technology so far, while 11 stations have awarded the tenders for the same, the CEA data shows. All other stations are yet to award the tenders. 

It takes between one year and 30 months to retrofit the technology from the time of awarding the tender, shows the internal communication between the environment and the power ministries, reviewed by Business Standard. 

Out of the six power stations in other ‘critically polluted areas’ outside the NCR, three had to retrofit the technology by September 30 and the other three by December 31. None of them have awarded the tender yet. The CEA data was accessed through RTI by environment researcher Sunil Dahiya. 

Prashant Gargava, Member Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, the environment-ministry body responsible for implementation of the emission norms, told Business Standard that the board did not have any plan to extend the deadlines for the plants to meet the norms. When asked on October 7 if the government would act against the non-compliant plants, he said he would get back after looking at the data. He did not respond to phone calls later. 

Ashok Khurana, Director General at the Association for Power Producers, the industry body that lobbied with the government on behalf of the thermal plants, said, “I don’t have any plant-specific information, but all plants have to abide by the timeline given by the CEA. Otherwise the law will take its own course.” 

The pollutants 

Coal-based thermal power stations produce electricity by burning coal. In the process, they release pollutants such as hazardous nitrogen and sulphur oxides and tiny particulate matter that can enter human lungs and cause respiratory diseases. 

Countries around the world have regulations to limit harmful emissions by thermal power plants. But till 2015, India did not have any standards for nitrogen and sulphur oxide emissions. The government had set standards for the emission of particulate matter in 1986, but they were lax compared to other countries.

In December 2015, the environment ministry notified standards for the emissions of nitrogen and sulphur oxides. It also made particulate matter emission norms stricter. The new standards would have led all thermal power plants in India to cut particulate matter emissions by about 40 per cent, and sulphur and nitrogen oxides by about 48 per cent by December 2017. 

To meet the new norms, each thermal power station was required to install an electrostatic precipitator that filters particulate matters from the gas coming out of the plant, a device for flue-gas desulfurisation (FGD), which helps remove sulphur dioxide from exhaust gases and Selective Catalytic Reduction technology that through chemical reactions reduces the amount of nitrogen oxides, by December 2017.  

Diluting the rules 

Within the months of notification of the new norms, the thermal power industry started opposing them. It argued that retrofitting of technology was costly. As the deadline of December 2017 approached, the environment ministry argued before the Supreme Court that the retrofitting of cleaner technologies would require the plants to shut down for months, which would affect the country’s power supply. It then accepted a “phased plan” prepared by the power ministry to give more than 400 power stations up to five more years to meet the norms.

In the plan, the deadline for limiting nitrogen oxide for all 400 plus power plants was extended to 2022, for particulate matter most power plants had deadlines between 2020 and 2022 and for installing FGD to control Sulphur oxide emissions, the deadlines for different power stations ranged from 2019 to 2022.  

According to the plan, the 33 power stations in the NCR and six stations in other critically polluted areas were required to retrofit the FGD devices for containing the Sulphur oxide emissions by December this year. While rest of the units got more time. 

As per the CEA data three units have already missed the September 30 deadline. Three other units have requested the government to extend the deadline by two to five years to install the FGD devices. 

According to a Greenpeace report, released in August this year, India is the largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the world, contributing more than 15 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions. The primary reason for India’s high emission output was the coal-based electricity generation over the past decade. Five of the top 10 SO2 emission hotspots from coal/power generation industry across the world are in India, according to the report.