Webinar: Identifying Coal plants for early retirement In India: a multidimensional analysis with Nada Maamoun

January 29, 2020 | 10:00-11:00 am EST

Coal-fired energy generation is the backbone of India’s power sector and is considered the driver to its thriving development. However, coal-fired energy is not only associated with detrimental environmental and health impacts in India but it is also struggling with overcapacity problems. Given, these problems, the early retirement of some India’s coal-fired power plants is recommended. In this paper, we introduce a multidimensional index that identifies plants for retirement based on comprehensive criteria that include plant characteristics, their environmental impacts and state-level power supply. Our results show that top plants recommended for retirement are mostly state-owned plants that are located in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu. These plants represent 10% of India’s coal fleet but account for more than 30 GW of its capacity. We compare the results of our index with other indices that rank plants based only on their technical characteristics and we find that plants recommended for retirement based on our multidimensional index have worse environmental impact and are located further away from coal sources, and thus more costly.

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