Climate change has become a dire threat to the world. It affects corporations as much as it does individuals. A flood or drought can scuttle the operations or slow sales of companies. A growing number of environment-conscious customers are also selective about the corporations they engage with. In other words, the stakes are high and companies can no longer ignore sustainable development. What about Indian corporates? Adapting to climate change is costly and not easy. Allocating capital to the vagaries of nature requires a shift in mindset as well: of investors and the management. In this special series, CNBC-TV18 takes a deep look at whether Indian enterprises have raised their game on sustainable development and environment goals. Here is the third part of the series. Follow the series here:
The year 2019 is behind us and so is the deadline for many power plants for emission norms compliance. Power plants were asked to install Flue Gas Desulphurisation units which cut sulphur emissions as this sector contributes 80 percent of the industrial SO2 emissions in India.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had earlier set the deadline as December 2017 to meet the emission standards. But then, it was extended by two years to December 31, 2019, and these plants were asked to install FGD units.
A ground check indicated that several power plants have missed the deadline to install FGD units. There were 33 units at 11 power stations (12790 MW) with phasing timeline to install FGD by December 2019 in National Capital Region (NCR), out of which only two units at Mahatma Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project (Jhajjar Power Station, CLP India Pvt. Ltd.) have installed FGD till now.CPCB mulls action
A member of the CPCB told CNBC-TV 18 that since the deadline is missed by a lot of power plants, they have reviewed the status and will decide the next course of action by next week.
Non-Delhi-NCR Coal-based power plants with FGD phasing deadline before December 2019 are as given in the following table which also indicates that three power plants i.e., Vizag, Singreni and Kothagudem TPS, had already passed the deadline in September 2019 and the ones ending in December 2019 have faltered as well.
Source: indianenvironmentalportal.org.in
| Developer | Name of Project | FGD Phasing Plan |
| APPDCL | Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah | 31/12/19 |
| HNPCL | Vizag TPP | 30/9/2019 |
| TANGEDCO | North Chennai Ext. TPP | 31/12/19 |
| SCCL | Singareni TPP | 31/12/19 |
| SCCL | Singareni TPP | 30/09/19 |
| TSGENCO | Kothagudem TPS | 30/09/19 |
Sources from Vizag TPP told us that they have not yet installed the FGD units due to lack of funds as it takes Rs 50-60 lakh/ MW to install the unit which could translate into a huge cost of Rs 600 crore and bankers are not willing to fund that kind of money as it is an investment with no monetary returns. They also said that they missed the deadline in September 2019 and since then discussions have been ongoing with the authorities but nothing has been finalised. A lot of the power plants have also asked for an extension of the deadline and are hopeful that the board will take this into consideration.
The person also said that some private players have been able to go ahead and make such investments but overall the situation is not good as the bid rates are also too high.
Some of the stats from Greenpeace suggests that:
- Only five companies have awarded bids (35240 MW) for FGD installation till now (Apart from CLP India Pvt. Ltd.)- NTPC (27640 MW), DVC (4700 MW), UPRVUNL (1000 MW), NTPC-SAIL JV (500 MW) and L&T Power (1400 MW).
- The central sector still hasn’t awarded bids for 20510 MW out of 53350 leaving more than 60 percent capacity not having bids awarded.
- The state sector has only awarded bids for 1000 MW out of 51885 MW- UPRVNL (Anpara TPS, Unit 6 and 7)
- The private sector has only awarded bids for 2720 MW (out of which 1320 at CLP India Pvt. Ltd. has already installed) out of 61237 MW- L&T Power (Nabha TPS) and CLP India Pvt. Ltd.
Significant investment needed
A study by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) suggested that to comply with the emission standards, power producers will have to make significant investments in installing pollution control technologies (PCT), i.e., Rs 0.5–1 crore (Rs 5–10 million)/MW for nearly 80 percent of the plants in 2030. It estimates an industry opportunity of around Rs 2,50,000 crore (Rs 2,500 billion) for the pollution control equipment industry, over the next 15 years. Plants in five states will account for over 50 percent of the total costs needed for PCT installation, till 2030. Privately owned plants will face the highest costs for implementing these standards (over 45 percent), followed by state-owned (32 percent), and centrally-owned plants (24 percent). However, the lack of domestic manufacturing capacity, availability of technology providers in India, and the time taken for procurement and installation of PCTs may deter a time-bound implementation plan.
Without compliance, the study estimates that the SOx and NOx emissions will double, as compared to 2015 baseline emissions, while PM10 emissions will increase by 30 percent over the next 15 years. Implementing control technologies to meet norms could reduce the projected emissions of SOx by 95 percent, NOx by 87 percent and PM by 83 percent, in 2030.
First Published: Jan 3, 2020 6:20 PM IST
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