Challenging Environment Norms in India

India, reversing its earlier stand to go slow on environmental initiatives involving additional costs, had announced its commitment at COP21 global climate talks in Paris in November 2015, pledging to improve the carbon emissions intensity of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

However, the Indian government has started initiatives in this direction much ahead of this announcement. Ministry of Environment & Forest and Climate Change, government of India, has stipulated stringent norms for power plants installed in the country vide Gazette Notification dt. 7th Dec 2015. With this in place, power plants will require to consume less water, and lower emissions for Particulate Matter (PM), Sulphur Dioxide (SOx), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Mercury (Hg).

Thermal power generation process will become more complex owing to the need of addressing climate change issues and mitigating stricter emission norms in future, at the same time tremendous pressure is on the generator to make the electricity affordable to all and to also remain competitive in the market.

In this new emerging scenario, there is a bigger responsibility to be shared by all those involved in the power plant design & engineering, operation & maintenance, renovation & modernization, erection & commissioning, environment management, commercial management, technology provider, product and solution providers, policy maker, regulators and others. These professionals have to work with new set of different challenges and constraints which are known or lesser known at this stage.

With the above in mind, Mission Energy Foundation has chosen to address the various issues and challenges and gather industry stakeholders during SOx NOx 2016 the first Conference – Expo – Awards to be held on 22 & 23 December 2016 at Hotel Taj – New Delhi.

The Challenges Ahead...

• Implementation of the new norms in existing TPPs may require more for design and engineering, approvals, arrangement of funds, tendering and erection, testing & commissioning.

• Approx 80000 MW of total installed capacity of less than 500 MW units will be affected due to non-availability of space.

• Expected delay in new TPPs due to the new norms as units in advanced stage of installation, the environmental control systems would have to be considered only as retrofits

• Implementation will affect power supply to grid as modifications/retrofits would require long shut downs of units with financial hardship to TPPs.

• Units operating at very low PLF of 10-20 % or have seasonal plant operation cannot recover the huge investment made, in their remaining life span without a steep rise in power tariff.

• Holding back commissioning of the units on account of Environmental Standards may not be advisable as it could lead to contractual issues with equipment suppliers, establishment of guarantees etc.

• Strategic plans would have to be taken up by other organization/ministries for mining of limestone, transportation of gypsum of requisite quality and handling ammonia & environmental approval thereon.

• Steep rise in tariff for 15-20 years old plants, as it would not be possible to recover the investment in their remaining life span.

• CAPEX and OPEX would have to be allowed by the regulators in tariff which ultimately would burden the consumers as power tariff may increase roughly by 45 to 55 paise/kWh.