Blog
Introduction
India has serious air pollution challenges arising from coal-fired power plants but power generators have been struggling to meet the new, more stringent standards. Even though these emissions have significant health impacts, the lack of financial support, lacklustre policy implementation, and lobbying by the power generating companies are resulting in dilution of the norms.
A December 2015 notification from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) mandated stricter emission norms for coal-fired power plants. Emissions norms for the sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM) and mercury (Hg) were tightened. Since then these standards have become an issue for thermal power generators, as they grapple with compliance.
Initially, the standards were to be met within 2 years, i.e. by 2017, but since then it has been postponed and now targets are to be met by 2022. Most recently, NOx levels were eased from 300 mg/Nm3 to 450 mg/Nm3 for plants that were installed between 2003 and 2016. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is now further advocating for dilution of these emission norms for newer plants (installed after 2016 and 2017).
How Detrimental are these Emissions to the Citizens?
The SO2, NOx, PM, and Hg emitted by coal-fired power plants contribute significantly to the air pollution in India. Specifically, emission level of NOx – a toxic gas which becomes part of PM2.5 particles and causes respiratory issues, is higher. A study conducted on carbon emission hotspots by the ETH Zurich –a Switzerland based university, found that Indian coal plants have highest share of health impacts in the world as India does not have any measures in place for controlling emission (SO2, NOx) from coal plants.
There is limited information about the health impacts caused by emissions from coal plants. Different research studies show varied results. For example, a 2018 Greenpeace report estimated that during 2017-18 approximately 76,000 people died in India due to pollution caused by coal plants. Research by Guttikunda and Jawahar (2014) argued that coal-fired thermal power plants in 2011–2012 may have resulted in 80,000 to 115,000 deaths in the country. A new study argued that total premature deaths can increase to 186,500 to 229,500 by 2030. Another research by Cropper et al. (2013) estimated that at current emission level of SO2, and NOx could result in an average 650 lives lost per plant per year. A 2018 study by Health Effects Institute estimated 169,300 deaths caused by coal combustion in 2015. It further said that by 2050, the emission from coal plants in the country could replace residential burning of biomass and could result in nearly 1.3 million deaths per year in 2050. All these (1.3 million) would be attributable to pollution from coal plants. A new research (Cropper et al., 2021), attributed 112,000 deaths annually to current plus planned coal-fired power plants.
All these studies show current and future health impacts of coal-fired plants, and how detrimental they are for the human health. However, emission norms are being ignored with little regrets. There has been much debate, and even supreme court intervened in the matter, but power generators have not shown much intent to meet emission standards.
What is Causing Delay in Adoption of Emission Norms?
The major reason behind laxity in regulating emission standards of coal plants comes from the argument that cost of retrofitting emission reduction equipment could be much higher. This can raise cost of coal power generation, and hence the electricity generated from these plants would become costlier to distribution companies, and ultimately to the consumers. A joint study by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) estimated the cost of technological improvements in coal plants to be between INR 73,176 crore (USD 10 billion) to INR 86,135 crore (USD 12 billion), which would raise the per unit electricity from these plants by approximately INR 0.32 per kWh to INR 0.72 per kWh (or around 9 to 21 per cent to average generation tariffs). The power generators are not willing to invest these costs and hence are resisting the regulation by repeatedly asking for dilution of emission standards.
There also seemed to be disagreements between MOEFCC and Ministry of Power – latter arguing for dilution of rules. In a letter dated 2nd January 2021, the power ministry wrote to MOEFCC that “target should be to maintain uniform ambient air quality across the country and not the uniform emission norms”, and that uniform norms for thermal power plants would impose cost burden, and argued that critically polluted areas can have stricter emission norms, but in area where air pollution is low, such strict norms are not practical.
In December 2020, “Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas” was constituted. However, it never received parliament’s approval, and hence lapsed. The same commission has now been reconstituted in April 2021. Meanwhile, a new notification has extended the timeline for meeting norms for coal plants, with a provision of penalty, if norms are not complied within timeline. This raises many questions about direction of air pollution policies, policymaking processes, and the political meddling in the handling of air pollution issues.
On the other hand, India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, in her 2021 budget speech mentioned “For the thermal power plants which are old and whose carbon emission levels are high, we propose that utilities running them should be advised to close them… The land so vacated could be put to an alternative use.” But on ground, such statements have not been supported by sufficient policy interventions or enforcement.
What Can the Policymakers Do?
The CEEW-IISD study already compared the costs of meeting emission standards with the costs on human health, and concluded that public health costs far outweigh the cost of retrofitting plants. Many other studies have also argued that costs to the human health can be much higher compared to the costs for improving the current technologies in power plants.
Even if we ignore respiratory diseases, in which air pollution can be a significant catalyst, too many deaths can be attributed to coal power plant’s emissions. The government and the policymakers have to take the problem of air pollution seriously. To ensure compliance by the power plants, there is a need for better regulatory framework, which then requires stricter enforcement of rules.
In this particular case of power plants citing financial burden, which is true for many privately owned projects, also needs a look by the government. The public owned power plants can be given funds by the government, considering it as an investment in public good which has long-terms benefits. This still leaves privately owned power projects. One way could be to provide loans and other methods of financing, which then could be recovered by raising power tariffs. There is also a need for improved regulatory support to ensure that adequate revenue is generated, which needs rework in tariff determination regulations. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has already provided rules for ‘change in law events’. This provision considers unforeseen circumstance, such as COVID-19 or rise in cost of fuels, for approving extra costs incurred while calculating tariff. However, the real change in implementing these at several state regulatory commissions has not perfectly happened, which needs to change.
There is also an argument that consumers should not be burdened with the extra electricity costs incurred in improving the emission standard of the plants because ultimately consumers will have to pay for the costly electricity. So to save consumers from the burden, the government needs to step in and help generation companies, and consumers. Also, it is important that government takes timely actions, since delaying and diluting rules would only result in more people getting affected. The joint study done by Health Effects Institute and IIT-Bombay estimated that between 400,000 and 850,000 deaths could be avoided with aggressive emission measures such as strict enforcement of rules, and financial support.
Conclusion:
Due to consistent research and advocacy by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), and demand for adequate action, there has been some progress. But it is very limited, and a lot needs to be done to tackle emissions from coal plants. China has successfully controlled emissions from its coal plants and this has been done with urgency, and India needs to show similar urgency. China has consistently pushed stricter emission measures, while India struggles to push such regulations.
***
Dheeraj Babariya is a student at the Centre for Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.