India’s largest power generating company, state-owned NTPC Ltd, said thermal power plants are “not responsible for air pollution in Delhi-NCR”. The statement by the firm comes at a time when Delhi government has asked for shutting thermal power units around the NCR region, in the wake of worsening air quality in the region during winter.
“Coal-fired power plants have often been accused of increased pollution, which may not always be correct. The coal-fired units of Dadri are closed since October, but the ambient air quality and Air quality index (AQI) of NCR has been deteriorating day by day. The same units were operational during the lockdown earlier this year with practically no emissions,” NTPC said in a public statement on Sunday.
Regarding the Dadri power plant the company said it is amongst the cleanest not only in NTPC but the whole country.
NTPC said, all the units of NTPC Dadri power station are equipped with “state-of-the-art systems to control emissions” like ESP for Particulate matter, Dry Sorbent Injection, desulfurization system for SOx emission and combustion modification for control of NOx emissions. Dadri units also have Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) & Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station (CAAQMS) are installed for real time monitoring of ambient air quality.
Satyender Jain, power minister, government of NCT of Delhi in a letter to the Union ministry of power last month, asked for Dadri power plant to be de-commissioned. it is requested that necessary directions may be issued to shut down the power generation from the plants non-compliant with the guidelines of the ministry of environment and forest dated December 7, 2015 and issue necessary directions to NTPC for decommissioning of Dadri-1 thermal station for containing the expected raise of pollution in Delhi,†Jain said in his letter.
NTPC in its letter however stated that the Dadri units are also trying to resolve the issue of stubble burning which is the prime cause of pollution in the NCR.
It said the Dadri thermal plant has developed the facility for co-firing of rice stubble agro-waste pellets. The company informed that, more than 8000 Metric Tonnes of agro pellets have been fired in last two years and this has avoided stubble burning inalmost 4000 acres of farmland.
“The use of agro-waste pellets for power generation at Dadri station is helping farmers financially and also in reducing the carbon footprint of power generation. The irony is that all the coal units at Dadri are under shutdown and the opportunity for generation of green power from parali (stubble)/agro-pellets is lost,” NTPC said in its statement.
NTPC’S Dadri power plant of 2.637-Mw capacity is situated in Vidyut Nagar of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar, whidh falls in NCR. The plant was commissioned in 1991. It is one of the cheapest units supplying to Delhi.
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