Power plants in Delhi-NCR get two more years to meet emission norms, deadline extension draws criticism

There are 11 power plants within a 300-km radius of the Delhi-NCR and the deadlines for these now range from December 2024 to December 2026, depending on their location.

The notification for the extension of the deadline for power plants across the country was issued on September 5 by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.

Similarly, for power plants within a 10-km radius of critically polluted areas, the deadline has been extended to December 2025 from December 2023, according to the notification.

The power plants are required to install flue-gas desulphurization (FGD) units that can reduce sulphur dioxide emissions. They were initially required to meet emission norms by December 2017. This deadline was later extended to December 2022. Power plants in Delhi-NCR were initially required to meet the standards by December 2020.

According to a note issued by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on the extension, out of the 35 units at the 11 coal-based power plants, only six units have installed FGD technology. “Currently, only 2.2 GW capacity has installed FGDs and only 5. 8 GW have awarded the bids leaving another 5.3 GW capacity which has not even awarded the bids; this means that apart from 2.2 GW capacity, most all other 29 units were likely to even miss the 2022 December timeline…,” according to CREA.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) also criticised the extension given to the power plants in a note issued Wednesday. “The amendment has — once again – favoured power plants by giving them another two years’ extension to meet the standards for sulphur dioxide (SO2). While the deadline for particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) remains the same as per the last notification, there is a blanket extension of the deadline for SO2 emissions for coal-based power plants,” the note stated.