Thermal power plants have been given an additional two years to install equipment such as flue-gas desulphurisation system (FGD) to minimise emissions of sulphur dioxide, after they failed to meet the dead- line to comply yet again.
- In a flue-gas desulphurisation system (FGD) system, sulphur compounds are removed from the exhaust emissions of fossil-fuelled power stations.
Key points
- The environment ministry extended the timeline to meet SO2 norms to December 31, 2027, for units which are scheduled to retire, and December 31, 2026, for plants that will continue operations beyond that period.
- The ministry has already given two extensions to the coal-fired power plants for meeting SO2 and other pollution norms.
- The emission norms to control particulate matter, SO2, nitrogen oxides and mercury from coal-fired power plants were notified in December 2015, which had a deadline of December 2017.
- In 2017, the ministry gave the plants extension until 2022 to comply with the emission standards.
- Power plants in the national capital region were given a tighter deadline of 2020 to meet the SO2 standards. Following no progress, the deadline was extended again in March 2021, when it was pushed to 2025.
- The environment ministry amended rules allowing thermal power plants within 10km of the national capital region and in cities with more than 1 million population to comply with new emission norms by the end of 2022 as against 2020.
- Thermal power plants within 10km radius of critically polluted areas or or non-attainment cities were allowed to meet the standards by December 31, 2023, and the remaining were given time till December 31, 2024.
- This time, the two-year extension has been given only for SO2.
- Non-attainment cities” are those that have consistently failed to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified 132 such cities.
