KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian coal-fired power plants are unlikely to meet the new emission norms by 2022, missing the deadline for the second time since the Environment Ministry first laid down compliance rules in 2015.

In the 2015 notification, the Ministry made it mandatory for thermal power plants to retrofit emission control equipment by December 2017. Having missed the deadline, the government has stated before the Supreme Court that the new deadline is 2022.

In a recent hearing, the Supreme Court observed, while hearing a petition on the failure of more than 500 coal-fired power plants to install emission control equipment and government’s affidavit, that “it is quite clear that the Power Ministry has no intention to do anything to reduce pollution. It shows that even the 2022 deadline cannot be met. It [the government affidavit] is illusory in nature. It appears that the Union of India proposes to do nothing in the matter.”

The government has said that all thermal power plants would have to install flue gas desulphurisation units to reduce sulphur oxide (SOx) and nitreous oxide (NOx) emissions, but none of the plants across the country had met the stipulation, claiming that capital costs for installing such units were not permitted to be ‘passed through’ to consumers through higher power tariffs by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.

An association of power producers has claimed that the full implementation of new emission norms would entail a capital expenditure of about $38-billion and that regulatory authorities had to approve a pass-through window for power producers, even if it made electricity tariffs more expensive.

However, independent environment advocacy groups have submitted counter claims stating that cleaning up the environment by lowering emissions would result in a 3% increase in electricity tariffs over a three-year period.

Industry analysts pointed out that, as per the rule of thumb, installation costs for flue gas desulphurisation ranged around Rs500 000 ($7 246) per megawatt of installed capacity.

According to the analysts, there is no consensus even on the need of putting up such units with several power producers claiming that Indian coal had a low sulphur content, which has been strongly disputed by environmental activists showing data of the rise of SOx emission by thermal power plants over the last five years.

Significantly, even as the tussle is on between power producers, government and environmental activists on emission control by older thermal power plants with court interventions, 13 GW of aggregate coal-fired power plants have been commissioned between January 1, 2018 and  August 2018, of which barring two, others did not have the necessary equipment installed to meet the 2015 emission norms.

Splitting hairs, the government has claimed that the 2015 emission norms were specifically laid down for older thermal power plants. However, activists have submitted that if norms were applicable for old plants there was no rationale for new plants to be exempted from the rules particularly so as it was easier to installed the necessary emission control equipment in new plants that retrofit older plants with the same units.