Tougher green laws are on the anvil for thermal power plants. The Ministry of Environment (MoEF) has come out with draft guidelines for cleaner power by cutting down on emission limits of the pollutants besides restrictions on usage of water. The new norms will, however, come into full effect from 2017 onwards.
According to sources, the proposed parameters would require the thermal plants to cut on their emissions as comparable to the State-of-the-art plants in the world. These would include reduction of Nitroxide emissions by 70 per cent, release of Sulphur dioxide by 90 per cent, control mercury emissions by 75 per cent and Suspended Particulate Matter by 25 per cent.
However, the plants that were set up after 2003 can get away with slightly relaxed norms but those set up prior to that will have to gear up further.
In connection with the new norms for consumption of water, the prevailing cooling tower based plants will be required to restrict to 3.5 cubic metre per watt hour. Plants to come up after January 2017 would have to achieve 2.5 cubic metre/MWh.
Further, the existing system of once-through-cooling (OTC) plants will be required to be replaced with cooling tower-based systems whose consumption does not exceed beyond 4 cubic metre /MWh. The Ministry has invited suggestions on the notification within a period of 30 days.
The green brigade has hailed the move considering that the emission cuts will be significant in terms of the average emission rate of industries. As an example Centre For Science & Environment (CSE) cited that, the average norm for SPM emission from a power plant in the country is 150 milligram per normal cubic metre Under the proposed standards, a plant installed in 2017 will have to meet a particulate standard of 30 milligram per normal cubic metre . This involves a cut by 80 per cent.