CHANDIGARH:Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued show
cause notices to the power utilities in Punjab and
Haryana why the thermal plants in these states should be
closed down for their failure to meet the deadline
to reduce emissions from its thermal plants.
CPCB issued notices on January 31 to the power utilities
operating thermal plants located within 300 Kms of national
capitol region and hs sought their replies by February 15.
CPCB may impose penalties in case their reply is not satisfactory.
Power utilities near Delhi were required to install flue gas de-sulphurization
(FGD) units to control pollution at these thermal plants.
For plants located in proximity to the National Capital Region,
the target date for environmental compliance was ended on December 2019.
In Punjab Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo, thermal plants are
in the private sector while other plants at Ropar and
Lehra Mohabatt is in the state sector.
It may be mentioned that that PSPCL has already started the process of installing these units at thermal plants.
In Haryana thermal plants at Panipat, Yamuna Nagar and Khedar thermal plants are with HPGCL. Jhajjar thermal is in the private sector.
Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has declared that all the thermal units which have outlived their life period of 25 years should be phased out and replaced by supercritical units.
PSPCL has already forwarded the case for the construction of
supercritical units to Punjab Government for approval.
V K Gupta Spokesperson All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that the
Finance Minister in her budget speech said that thermal plants
that are old and their emission levels are high and for these plants the power utilities
running these plants would be advised to close them.
The estimated cost for total compliance is 0.73 crore per MW.
As per a report, the tariff increase would be 32 to 72 paise per
unit but in extreme cases, the tariff increases could be as high
as 90 paise to 120 paise per unit depending upon plant load factor.