Study flags poor compliance by West Bengal power plants in pollution control

The country’s first emission norms for control of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury from coal-fired power plants were notified in December 2015 but the standards are yet to be followed

Not a single coal-based thermal power plant in West Bengal has installed flue gas desulphurisation (FDG), a technology to eliminate sulphur compounds from exhaust emissions, a study has found. 

Plants that contribute to 40% of coal-based power generation capacity in the State have not yet been awarded the contracts for FDG units whereas the remaining power production facilities were not able to complete the installation of the technology within the allotted time frame, said an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an independent research organisation.

The total coal-based electricity generation capacity of plants in the State is 13,686 megawatts (MW). None of the major plants connected to the power grid has installed FGD units or direct sorbent injection (DSI) technology to control sulphur dioxide emissions.

Units with 7,480 MW power generation capacity in West Bengal have been awarded contracts for FGD installation. Units with a capacity of 510 MW have been identified as ones that will be “retired” over the next few years and are exempted from the FGD requirement. This shows that units contributing 5,695 MW (40% of total capacity) are yet to take any serious steps to regulate sulphur dioxide emissions despite the notification in December 2015, the study points out. 

The coal consumption for grid-connected power generation in West Bengal has increased from 44 metric tonnes (MT) in 2015 to 54 MT in 2021 and the population of West Bengal faces severe health risks due to the State’s reliance on dirty coal energy, the study said. Both State-run power plants and private-sector power generation units have shied away from installing retrofits to control sulphur dioxide emissions.

While none of the private power plants has even awarded the contracts for installing FDG technology after seven years of emission norms being in force, a lack of commitment by the State government agencies to reducing pollution emissions is evident in the fact that plants contributing 3,070 MW of the 3,970 MW capacity under the State sector have not given the contracts for FGD installation.

The country’s first emission norms for control of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury from coal-fired power plants were notified in December 2015 and since then the deadline for installation of pollution control equipment has been extended three times by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.