The use of coal as fuel in industrial, domestic units will be banned in the National Capital Region (NCR) from January 2023 but the ban wouldn’t apply thermal power plants — incidentally the largest users of coal, according to a notification Wednesday by the Commission for Air Quality Management, that coordinates air pollution norms in Delhi and adjoining States.
“Restrictions/ban on use of coal shall come in force from October 2022 (for regions where Piped Natural Gas) infrastructure and supply is already available and January 2023 (for other regions where the PNG supply is still not available). In full effect, use of coal as fuel shall be banned across NCR from 01.01.2023,” according to the notification.
Coal dominates industrial fuels in the NCR and current estimates indicate that approximately 1.7 million tonnes of coal is consumed annually for industrial applications in NCR, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed in six major industrial districts of NCR alone.
There isn’t a standard figure for how much coal is used by thermal power plants in the Delhi-NCR. An analysis by environmental non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment, estimated in 2020 that Delhi alone sourced 33.6% of its power needs from coal based thermal power plants with the rest from gas-fired plants. Coal is however the mainstay of power across India accounting for over 65% of the electricity supplied. Shortage of coal in recent months have prompted periodic crises when stocks run critically low and States complain of having no more than a few days worth of reserve.
Concerned with levels of pollution from coal-fired plants, the Union Environment Ministry had ordered thermal plants in 2015 to retrofit and use technology that ensured minimal sulphur emissions, a key pollutant. Despite a deadline in 2017, almost no plants complied and these deadlines have been extended to December 2022. Power plants say the cost of retrofitting is prohibitive.
Independent analysts say that expecting industrial units to give up coal while thermal plants don’t comply is hypocritical. “It is good that industrial units, tandoors are asked to give up coal. However, except a few units of power plants in Delhi NCR, none have retrofitted. So unless power plants also give up coal, it will have limited impact on pollution because sulphate emissions from these plants are major environmental pollutant,” said Sunil Dahiya, Analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Nivit Yadav, who leads the Industrial Pollution Unit at the CSE and has worked on pollution from non-thermal sources say that the Commission’s decisions were a promising start. “It remains to be seen how much other States in the NCR comply. Of course, power plants must eventually give up coal but what we are seeing today is a start and the government and the Central Pollution Control Board must strictly enforce these norms.”
