Deadline pushed to 2022 for green norm-adopting thermal power plants

Mridanee Shetty

October 23, 2020

(Source: Times of India)

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) stressed on calling the aim to encourage coal fired thermal power plants adopting green norms for cleaner air, as 'First run' plants.

Coal-based power has always been the most useful resource in use and polluting industries and coal power vegetation emit 60% of the full particulate matter, 45% of whole sulphur dioxide, 30% of whole nitrogen oxides and more than 80 p.c of the full mercury emitted by all industries in India, according to a report by Pehal News.

A report in the Times of India claims that the plants require a certificate from the pollution control board to certify that they are complying or that they are advanced in the direction to comply with the environmental norms as per December 2015, mainly in the emissions of PM, SO2 and NO2. The first-run ranking power stations will have to be made and power procured from them on priority.

CSE has stressed on extending the penalties for power vegetation that isn't showing any chances of adopting norms to lower emission, according to Pehal News.

The Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) have been releasing reports about the thermal power plants likely to miss the green norm deadline of the year 2022, according to The Times of India.

"CSE categorised the power generation as per Fuel Gas Desulphurization (FGD) norms. According to it 57624 MW coal likely to meet target which has been put in yellow category, 140940 MW likely to miss the target and has been put in orange category, 7450 MW is sure to miss target and has been put in red category.", said the CSE DG Sunita Narain, as per a report on Pehal News. Chairman, Economic advisory council to Prime Minister, Bibek Debroy, NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh, power secretary Sanjiv Nandan Sahai, Adani Transmission MD and CEO Anil Sardana attended the webinar and put up the government point of view.

Current regulations imply that the penalty of Rs 30,000-50,000 per MW for not complying is not high enough to serve purpose. CPCB will need to step-in and modify some penalty provisions, in order to tackle it. The Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) suggested a fine of Rs 20 lakh per MW, said Nivit K Yadav, programme director, industrial pollution CSE, as reported by Newsbbt.

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) introduced stricter standards of environment for coal-based plants on December 7, 2015 under the Atmosphere Safety Act, 1986, to contain the pollution caused by coal-based power plants, but the deadline was pushed to 2022, as reported by Economic Times.

The Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) analysis reveals that most plants have not taken actions that are adequate and have not yet made any significant progress, even after five years of announcing the norms, according to Economic Times.

Soundarya Ramanathan, Deputy Programme Manager, Industrial Pollution Unit, CSE, told Economic Times that the center owned plants have been leading in SO2 norms, followed by the private sector, followed by state, which apparently, 'have made no progress'. His take on the obstacles being faced, is that lack of data is the main reason behind this.

(Sources: Times of India, Economic Times, Newsbbt, Pehal News)

Edited by: Shreya Gupta