power sector

ENERGETICA INDIA

CSE’s Green Rating Project finds Indian coal-based power

plants performance found to be below global benchmarks
CSE analysed and rated 47 coal-based thermal power plants from across the country on a
variety of environmental and energy parameters.

I
ndian coal-based thermal power
plants are some of the most inefficient
in the world — says a two-year long
research study by Centre for Science and
Environment (CSE). The study, done under
CSE’s Green Rating Project (GRP), is the
first of its kind rating of this industrial sec-
tor for its environmental performance and
compliance.
CSE analysed and rated 47 coal-based
thermal power plants from across the
country on a variety of environmental and
energy parameters. About half of all the
plants operating in 2011-12 were selected
for the rating.
Three top power plants were awarded for
their overall environmental performance,
while two others received awards for their
efficient use of resources such as energy
and water. The awards were handed over
by M S Swaminathan, the ‘father’ of In-
dia’s Green Revolution. The study report
was released jointly by Dr Swaminathan;
Ashok Lavasa, secretary, Union ministry of
environment, forests and climate change;
and Arvind Subramanian, chief economic
advisor, Government of India.
In a statement, CSE director general Su-
nita Narain said, “The objective of the study
was to give a clear picture of the environ-
mental performance of the sector. Our find-
ing is that in India, where the demand for
power is increasing, power plants are per-
forming way below the global benchmarks.
Given the rapid increase in coal-based
power projected by the government, stress
on precious resources like water and land
will increase and air and water pollution
will worsen, unless corrective measures are
taken by the industry and policy-makers.”
Speaking about the rating programme,
Chandra Bhushan, CSE’s deputy director
general, said: “The Green Rating Project is
one of the very few public-disclosure pro-
jects in the world in which a non-govern-
mental, non-industry organisation rates
the environmental performance of indus-
tries and makes the results public. We fol-
low a robust and transparent process and
the outcomes of our ratings have been
used by companies as well as policymakers
to improve policies and practices.”
The project, started in 1997, has so far
rated five major industrial sectors of India –
pulp and paper, iron and steel, chlor-alkali,
cement and automobiles. The coal-based
power sector is the sixth it has rated.

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What did the Rating Study Find?
“Our analysis essentially says that this sec-
tor has a lot of room for improvement,”
points out Bhushan. The key findings of
the rating exercise were:
• The sector’s overall score was a low
23 per cent (a plant adopting all the
best practices would have scored 80
per cent). The average efficiency of the
plants in the study was 32.8 per cent,
one of the lowest among major coal-
based power producing countries. Av-
erage CO2 emission was 1.08 kg/kWh,
14 per cent higher than China’s.
• The top performers were West Bengal-
based CESC-Budge Budge, followed
by JSEWL-Toranagallu (Karnataka),
Tata-Trombay (Maharashtra) and JSW-
Ratnagiri (Maharashtra). They scored
between 45-50 per cent. In addition,
Tata-Mundra (Gujarat) received an
award for having the highest energy
efficiency, while Gujarat Industries
Power Company Ltd (GIPCL), Surat,
won an award for lowest water use.
• A disappointing 40 per cent of the
plants in the study received less than a
20 per cent score, pointing to the dis-
mal state of the sector.
• India’s thermal power plants are esti-
mated to withdraw around 22 billion
cubic metre of water, which is over half
of India’s domestic water need. Even
the plants with cooling towers use an
average of 4 m3/MWh; the average
water consumption in Chinese plants
is 2.5 m3/MWh.
• Fifty-five per cent of the units were
violating air pollution standards which
are already extremely lax – particulate
matter (PM) norms are at 150-350 mg/
Nm3 (milligram per normal metre cube)
compared to Chinese norms of 30 mg/
Nm3.
• Fly ash disposal remains a major prob-
lem. Presently, only about 50-60 per
cent of the 170 million odd tonne
of fly ash generated by the sector is
“utilised”; the remaining is dumped
into poorly designed and maintained
ash ponds. Currently, about a billion
tonne of these toxic ashes lie dumped
in these ponds, polluting land, air and
water. By 2021-22, the sector will pro-
duce 300 million tonne of fly ash every
year.
energetica india · MAR|APR15
CSE analysed and rated
47 coal-based thermal
power plants from
across the country on a
variety of environmental
and energy parameters
• Ash slurry, which has toxic heavy met-
als, was found in river and reservoirs
of 20 plants. Test done CSE lab found
power sector
that nearly 40 per cent of the plants
did not meet the basic total suspended
solid (TSS) norms for effluents dis-
charged by them. 60 percent plants
had not installed effluent and sewage
treatment plants
• Thirty-six of the 47 plants were unable
to meet the MoEF’s mandated target
of utilising 90 per cent of the solid
waste (ash) generated – average use
was only 54 per cent.
• The performance of the NTPC Ltd., the
largest coal-power producing company
in India, was found to be below par.
NTPC did not disclose its data, and hence
was rated based on a primary survey and
publicly available information. The six
plants of NTPC that were rated received
scores of 16-28 per cent. The poorest of
the lot was Delhi’s Badarpur plant.
The Rating Study Methodology
Industries assessed under the GRP project
are awarded leaves for their performance –
the highest being five leaves and the low-
est being none. In the current rating, only
four plants scored between 40 and 60 per
cent and received the Three Leaves award.
The project selected a diverse group of
plants from all regions, of various vintages,
sizes and technologies and owned by all
major companies, including state and cen-
tral ones, to ensure as wide a representa-
tion as possible. GRP is a participatory pro-
cess — companies voluntarily disclose data
and permit the GRP team to independently
scrutinise the plants and their records.
The plants were rated on around 60 pa-
rameters covering everything from coal
and water use and plant efficiency to air
and water pollution and ash manage-
ment. Local community views and impacts
on them were given due weightage along
with the plants’ compliance record and
environment policies. The ratings involve
comparing the performance of the plants
against the best practices.
Priyavrat Bhati, programme director of
CSE’s Sustainable Industrialisation team
(which is behind this rating project), said:
“The most striking part of the ranking is
that 20 plants did not get a single leaf,
which is a reflection of their particularly
poor environmental performance. Some of
the plants did not want to participate. Yet,
we assessed them on the basis of field-
level surveys and publicly available data.”
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power sector
He added: “We were encouraged by
the transparency showed by a number of
state-owned plants that voluntarily dis-
closed data despite being inefficient and
highly polluting.”
Way Ahead?
• National norms for PM are very weak
and need to be brought in line with
global standards.
Energetica India brings more insights into this matter
through its discussion with Mr. Chandra Bhushan, Deputy
Director General, Centre for Science and Environment [CSE]
Energetica India: What exactly is the Green
Rating Project?
Chandra Bhushan: The Green Rating Project
(GRP) is an independent, voluntary disclo-
sure based programme at the Centre for
Science and Environment (CSE) that as-
sesses the environmental performance of
various core industrial sectors in India. It
rates the sectors and makes the environ-
mental and social performance public.
GRP also provides clear guidelines for the
industry to improve its performance. Sec-
ond, the Green ratings aim to drive policy
improvements. GRP’s previous ratings have
had a significant impact on the industry’s
performance.
Energetica India: How important is envi-
ronment performance for coal power
plants?
Chandra Bhushan: Coal-based power com-
panies are highly polluting and extremely
resource intensive. If we wish to reduce
the environment impact of the industrial
sector as a whole, improving the thermal
power sector would be at the centre of
that endeavour given the scale of this sec-
tor’s impact.
• The sector consumes over 70 per cent
of the coal consumed in India (~450
million tonnes in 2013-14).
• Coal based power generation accounts
for 70 per cent of the total freshwater
withdrawals by the industrial sector.
6 energetica
• National norms for SOx, NOx and mer-
cury are absent and need to be estab-
lished with short breathing room to
install new abatement technologies.
• Monitoring by regulators should be
strengthened – they should be given
more powers (including imposing stiff
penalties) to enforce compliance.
• Ash policy should support higher us-
age of ash. Utilisation targets for in-
• Of the total Particulate Matter (PM) emis-
sions from industrial sector, 60 per cent
is from coal based power plants alone.
• Of the total Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emis-
sions from industrial sector, 45-50 per
cent are from coal based power plants.
• Of the total Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
emissions from industrial sectors, 30 per
cent are from coal based power plants.
• They also happen to be the single larg-
est source of Mercury (Hg) emissions in
India, at 80 per cent of total.
dividual plants should keep in mind
scope for utilisation.
• Coal washing capacity needs to be
doubled to meet increased use.
• Regulations/incentives to ensure im-
provement in capacity utilisation.
• Approvals for new capacities should be only
for supercritical / ultra supercritical plants.
• Old inefficient plants should be closed
at an aggressive pace.
• More than half of India’s total CO2
emission is by coal based power
generation.
Energetica India: What has been the rea-
son for the dismal performance of the
Indian power plants in the environment
ratings?
Chandra Bhushan: The reasons for the poor
performance of plants are many, but a few
of the key ones are listed below:
• Old, dated technology still being used
in plants – In general these plants have
low “design” efficiency. Poor operation
& maintenance (O&M) practices lead
to a deterioration in efficiency, which
means the actual efficiency is low – in
fact Indian fleet’s efficiency is one of the
lowest among all major countries.
• Perverse incentive schemes which give
priority to old, inefficient plants since
power generated by them is often
cheaper (Merit Order Dispatch). Ironi-
cally, efficient super-critical plants like
Tata Mundra, NTPC Sipat and Adani
Mundra are being under-utilized.
• Pollution norms lax or non-existent: In-
dian PM norms are way below those of
even China, let alone US/EU. We have
no national norms for SO2, NOx and
Mercury. Water consumption norms
are not set using actual data from
plants and are lot higher than interna-
tional best practices
india · MAR|APR15

• Efficiency improvement schemes like
Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT)
should be strengthened with ambi-
tious targets and more thorough anal-
ysis of plants’ performance.
• The dispatch order (i.e. the sequence
in which plants are asked to supply
power) should ensure polluting plants
are not called first because they are the
cheaper.
• Fuel quality variations: Plants often re-
ceive coal of inferior quality, leading to
a drop in performance.
• Weak monitoring measures: Plants
are expected to self-monitor emission
levels but protocols of monitoring are
deficient – reported data is accordingly
unreliable. Further, pollution control
boards (PCBs) are ill-equipped to en-
force existing regulations.
• Lack of comprehensive supporting
policy framework: For eg MoEF&CC
requires 100 per cent ash utilization by
2014, however, avenues of usage like
brick manufacturing are not exploited
since municipal laws don’t require use
of ash-bricks.
Energetica India: Will environment perfor-
mance further decrease if the utilization
capacity of these plants is increased to
meet the country’s energy demands?
Chandra Bhushan: I guess the question is if
environment performance will deteriorate
if the “generation” increases to meet the
country’s demands. It doesn’t have to if
we implement tougher pollution regula-
tions and encourage/require companies
to install pollution control equipment. For
e.g. Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) could
cut SO2 emissions by over 90%.
Energetica India: Based on this study, what
kind of steps are you expecting from the
government?
Chandra Bhushan: The study has been dis-
cussed in both houses of Indian Parliament.
We expect that the government would
adopt key recommendations suggested in
the GRP report “Heat on Power”. A few
of them are:
energetica india · MAR|APR15
• Clearances given to new capacities
should be based on best achievable wa-
ter consumption practices and levels.
• Water tariffs should increase to curb
excessive use.
Said Chandra Bhushan: “The good news
is that environment damage can be limited
– technologies exist to cut air pollutants,
while ash generated from burning coal can
be gainfully used. We found some of the
• Air pollution norms: PM norms need
to be made tougher and new norms
need to be brought in for NOx, SO2
and Mercury. Most importantly, the
norms need to be enforced through
“continuous emissions monitoring sys-
tems”. PCBs need to build manpower
and skills to improve monitoring.
• Reduce water use: Water use by pow-
er plants should be cut to global best
practices level.
• Ash Policy: Ash utilisation should be
supported by a policy framework
that encourages its use in road con-
struction, brick making and construc-
tion. Ash use norms should consider
plant location norms and available
avenues. Building bye-laws in around
50 key municipalities where con-
struction activity is heavy need to
amended expeditiously to mandate
use of ash bricks.
• Closure of old/inefficient plants: Chi-
na shut 114 GW of small, inefficient
plants over the last decade. India’s in-
efficient plants need to be shuttered at
an expedited pace.
• Accelerating introduction of supercriti-
cal/ultrasupercritical (SC/USC) plants:
The respective ministries need to en-
sure that upcoming plants utilize only
SC/USC technology.
Energetica India: What parameters/clauses
can be pushed by the government, while
giving permission to new power plants,
to discourage this dismal environment
performance?
Chandra Bhushan: A few measures that can
improve environment performance among
upcoming plants are:
power sector
plants implementing these technologies.
However, a concerted effort by the indus-
try and regulators is urgently required.”
Narain added: “The bottom line is that
we cannot afford to continue discounting
the environmental and health costs of pol-
luting coal-based power plants. This is the
clear message from our rating. We hope
that the industry and government will lis-
ten to this message and act on it.” 7
• Environment clearances based on best
available technologies: Plants should
adopt only the best available technol-
ogy for both pollution control and re-
source efficiency.
• Global best norms: New plants should
conform to the global best norms, both
for resource use as well as pollution.
• Cumulative impact assessments: Im-
pact analysis for plants which are be-
ing set up either in critically polluted
areas or in regions with large industry
concentration needs to be done on
a cumulative basis. Such regions are
prone to clashes between competing
users for resources, for eg. Water use
by power plants is a contentious issue
in scarcity affected regions – its avail-
ability, need and allocation should be
done on a regional basis.
• Ash utilization plans: New plants
should submit a roadmap detailing
how they plan to achieve 100 per cent
ash utilization as a part of their envi-
ronmental clearance process.
Energetica India: Which other sectors can
be targeted under GRP?
Chandra Bhushan: GRP, started in 1997, has
already rated the following sectors:
• Pulp & Paper (twice)
• Chlor-Alkali
• Automobile
• Cement
• Iron & Steel
GRP aims to bring about meaningful change
among large polluting and resource intensive
industrial sectors in India. These have been
categorized as ‘Red’ category industry by the
CPCB. We hope to rate other core industrial
sectors but there are no firm plans yet 7
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