Several coal-fired power plants, including those in the national capital region, are likely to have missed the revised deadline to retrofit equipment to curb air pollution, industry estimates showed. A total of 47.95 gigawatts thermal power capacity missed the December 31, deadline to install Flue Gas Desulphurization (FDG) units to minimise SO2 emissions, the estimates prepared by private power producers showed.
These include coal-fired units in the national capital region. Coal-fired power plants, which produce three-quarters of India’s electricity, account for some 80 per cent of industrial emissions of sulfur and nitrous-oxides, which cause lung diseases and smog. Power plants were asked to install FGD units, which cut emissions of sulfur dioxides, in phases. In all 440 coal-fired plans that produce 166.5 GW have to comply with the regulation by December 2022. More than one-third of these had to retrofit equipment by December 2019. The power plants that missed the deadline to cut emission levels across the country included 33 units with a total capacity of 18.12 GW in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.