How Ignoring Guidelines On Coal Power Plants Has Turned Delhi Into An Irreversible Gas Chamber

It has been almost four years since the central government sent out a notification on air pollution standards for India¡¯s coal-fired power plants.

In 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) legislated new standards to limit concentrations for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and mercury in stack emissions for coal-fired power plants.

The Ministry amended the standards in 2018; however, there was no material change in air pollution norms, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The thermal generators were to comply with the norms by December 2017. For new plants, compliance was required at the point of commissioning from January 2017. However, by December 2017, almost no coal plants had installed pollution control equipment and the deadline was extended to 2022.

For thermal plants located in proximity to the National Capital Region (NCR), the target date for environmental compliance is the end of 2019, just a month away. Reports suggest that as of now, only one out of 11 stations have complied in the NCR region.

¡°If companies were to comply, they should have issued a procurement order, and the contract should have been signed or work should be underway. If that is not there, then people are going to say there is going to be another extension,¡± says Karthik Ganesan, Research Fellow, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

CEEW¡¯s report along with the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) looked at the slow progress from coal companies, and costs of setting up these pollution control technologies.

Ganesan says, ¡°There is a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, CPCB directive issued to all of them. But then, there is no clear penalty at the end of it. There is an implementation crunch here.¡±

Some Findings from the report ¡°India¡¯s Energy Transition¡±

For giant companies like National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), progress has been witnessed. Ganesan says, ¡°NTPC is definitely going ahead and making a progress. There will be a visible movement in the central power plant implementation. However, state utilities and private ones, which are in need of compliance, are worried because they do not have the credibility to ask financial institutions to invest in plants.¡±
The reality behind non-compliance

This is primarily because many distribution grids are already reeling under debt. And they do not have the same guarantee as NTPC.

Ganesan says, ¡°State utilities and state generating companies are loss-making units. The financier is still wary of lending to state generating companies and private companies because both of them do not have recourse. Reports suggest that power generation has been coming down in the last year, and this is a bad sign for investors looking to invest in this sector.¡±

Though there is a regulatory mechanism, there is no strong penalty for non-compliance. ¡°If you want people to invest in the electricity sector, you have to change the way money is collected and make it remunerative for investors. Without doing that, if we ask for any investment, no matter how rational it is, the money will not come.

And the case is going to be the same for renewable energy as well. We will be an economy that will run on both coal and alternative energy.¡± Ganesan also believes that distribution companies need to be able to pass on these higher costs to end consumers, and electricity subsidies should be targeted only to the poorest.

China tackles pollution

In 2011, China brought in stringent emission standards for coal power plants by reducing the nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide limits to 100¨C200 mg/m3 limits and 100¨C400 mg/m3.

In highly polluting regions, sulphur dioxide standards were 50 per cent lower than the rest of the nation. In addition, it is reported that certain regions, including Beijing, have voluntarily adopted stricter norms than the national ones.

The government initiatives in China were successful. The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that since 2012, sulphur dioxide emissions from coal-based plants decreased by 38 per cent and nitrogen oxide emissions declined by 42 per cent. By 2015, more than 50 per cent of the plants had installed the devices. China¡¯s success in cleaning up its thermal fleet can be attributed not only to the adoption of stringent norms but the comprehensiveness of the action plan.

Ganesan says, ¡°In China, you had a clear regulatory regime and an implementation. Here, we are allowing people to dilly-dally and not having a penalty. They are incentivizing. We do not have that kind of control here. Simple thing is that every day you are not investing, the cost to society is going up. We are dragging this on, it is hurting the public. It all comes down to us valuing human life.¡±

He adds, ¡°When it comes to air pollution, a rich person may have more resources. The average person is not aware of the consequences, and is not doing much to protect himself appropriately, and just brace up for the impact. That is where we stand unless there is a change in the way we cope with it.¡±

The author is a national and international award-winning freelance environment journalist, based in Coimbatore.