Lok Sabha Question No. 4594 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-22
Subject: Shortage of Water for Power Plants
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: ELUMALAI VELLAIGOUNDER, JOSE K. MANI, RAM CHARITRA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4594 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.03.2018

## SHORTAGE OF WATER FOR POWER PLANTS

4594.  SHRI V. ELUMALAI: SHRI JOSE K. MANI: SHRI RAM CHARITRA NISHAD:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

(a) whether it is a fact that the country's thermal power plants, about 90% of which rely  on  fresh  water  for  cooling,  are  facing  serious  outages  because  of  shortage  for water, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether it is also true that between 2013 and 2016, 14 of country's 20 largest thermal utility companies experienced one or more shutdowns due to water shortage, if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether  it  is  also  true  that  this  cost  the  power  producers  more  than  Rs.  91 billion in potential revenue from the sale of power, if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether  water  scarcity  is  set  to  worsen  as  India's  thermal  power  sector expands and demand for water from other sectors increases, if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether  by  2030, 70%  of country's thermal power  plants are likely to experience increased competition for water from agriculture, industry and municipalities, if so, the details thereof and the steps taken/proposed to be taken up by the Government in this regard;

(f) whether  the  Government  has  recently  mandated  limits  for  specific  water consumption at thermal power plants, if so, the details thereof; and

(g) whether  the  Government  plans  any  policy  incentives  to  encourage  water conservation, water efficiency across the power sector, if so, the details thereof?

## A N S W E R

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER AND NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

( SHRI  R. K. SINGH )

(a) & (b): No, Madam. The total Outage Losses due to water shortage reported by the  stations  in  the  current  year,  upto  February,  2018,  are  about  3400  Million  Units (MU), which is about 0.38% of total coal/lignite based generation during the period.

………2.

## Losses  due  to  water  shortage  reported  by  the  Thermal  Stations  during 2013-14 to 2016-17 are as follows:

|   S.No. | Year    |   Losses in MU |
|---------|---------|----------------|
|       1 | 2013-14 |         4375.8 |
|       2 | 2014-15 |         1155.9 |
|       3 | 2015-16 |          995   |
|       4 | 2016-17 |         9565.2 |

Details of the Outage of Thermal Generating Plants due to water shortage for the last four years are furnished at Annexure.

- (c) : Information in this regard is not maintained  in Central Electricity Authority/Ministry  of  Power.  However,  it  is  informed  that  the  outage  of  a  thermal power plant due to shortage of water will cause loss of revenue in terms of variable charge as well as loss of fixed charge if the plant availability falls below the normative value.
- (d) to (e) : As  per  the  Central  Water  Commission  guidelines  issued  in  November, 2014,  for Improving Water Use Efficiency in Irrigation, Domestic & Industrial Sectors, the  National  Commission  for  Integrated  Water  Resources  Development  (NCIWRD) estimated  water  utilization  in  power  development  as  only  3%  out  of  the  total withdrawal/ utilization for 2010 for all types of uses.

The Government has taken following steps to encourage water conservation, water efficiency across the power sector:

- I. Ash water recirculation system- Water from ash pond is recovered and reused in the system.
- II. Dry  fly  ash  handling  system  &  High  concentration  slurry  disposal  system (HCSD)These ash handling techniques reduce the ash handling water requirement thereby reducing the water consumption.
- III. Zero water discharge system - Treating the total waste water produced in the plant  and  recycling  back  in  to  the  consumptive  water  system  reduces  water consumption.
- IV. Operating cooling towers at higher Cycle of Concentration (COC). This reduces the waste water generated by the plant. This waste water generated is used for low grade applications like ash handling, coal dust suppression and gardening etc.
- V. Most of inland thermal power plants use closed cycle cooling water system with Cooling Tower and high level of COC to recirculate the water in operation for reducing the water requirement.

(f) : Ministry  of  Environment,  Forest  &  Climate  Change  (MOEF&CC)  has notified  Environment  (Protection)  Amendment  Rules,  2015  on  7 th   December  2015 related to water consumption limit for existing and future thermal power plants:

- (i) All  plants  with  Once-Through-Cooling  (OTC)  shall  install  Cooling  Tower (CT)  and  achieve  specific  water  consumption  upto  a  maximum  of  3.5 m 3 /MWh within a period of two years from the date of publication of this notification.
- (ii) All existing Cooling Tower  based plants to reduce specific water consumption up to a maximum of 3.5m 3 /MWh within a period of two years from the date of publication of this notification.
- (iii) New  plants  to  be  installed  after  1st  January,  2017  shall  have  to  meet specific water consumption upto a maximum of 2.5m 3 /MWh and achieve zero waste water discharge.

(g) : The  Tariff  Policy,  2016  mandates  the  thermal  Power  Plants  for  use  of treated  sewage  water  from  Sewage  Treatment  Plants  (STP)  of  Municipality  /  local bodies,  that  are  located  within  50  km  radius.  All  Thermal  Power  Plants  have  been advised to use STP water for cooling purpose, wherever possible.

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ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) & (b) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION

NO.  4594 TO BE ANSWERED IN THE LOK SABHA ON 22.03.2018. *********** DETAILS OF OUTAGE OF THERMAL GENERATING PLANTS DUE TO WATER SHORTAGE OF LAST FOUR YEARS

| ORGANIZATION   | STATION            |   LOSS IN 2013-14 (in MU) |   LOSS IN 2014-15 (in MU) | LOSS IN 2015-16 (in MU)   |   LOSS IN 2016-17 (in MU) |
|----------------|--------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------|
| MAHAGENCO      | PARLI TPS          |                    3889.6 |                    1032.8 | 0.0                       |                    3931.5 |
| RRVUNL         | GIRAL TPS          |                      28.6 |                       0   | 0.0                       |                       0   |
| APL            | TIRORA TPS         |                      80.5 |                       0   | 0.0                       |                    2375.1 |
| UPRVUNL        | HARDUAGANJ TPS     |                      29   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                       0   |
| SEL            | STERLITE TPP       |                     292.9 |                       0   | 0.0                       |                    1122.3 |
| MPPGCL         | SATPURA TPS        |                      32.8 |                       0   | 0.0                       |                       0   |
| TNGDCL         | NORTH CHENNAI TPS  |                      22.2 |                      20.9 | 0.0                       |                      16.2 |
| BEPL           | UTRAULA TPS        |                       0.1 |                       0.4 | 0.0                       |                       0   |
| EPGL           | SALAYA TPP         |                       0   |                       6.1 | 100.8                     |                      50.9 |
| NTPC Ltd.      | RIHAND STPS        |                       0   |                      91.6 | 0.0                       |                       0   |
| SCPL           | RATIJA TPS         |                       0   |                       4.1 |                           |                      46.5 |
| NTPC LTD.      | BARH II            |                       0   |                       0   | 17.4                      |                       0   |
| ACB            | KASAIPALLI TPP     |                       0   |                       0   | 6.6                       |                       0   |
| KPCL           | RAICHUR TPS        |                       0   |                       0   | 130.5                     |                       0   |
| GSECL          | SIKKA REP. TPS     |                       0   |                       0   | 23.0                      |                       0   |
| NTPL           | TUTICORIN (JV) TPP |                       0   |                       0   | 2.0                       |                       0   |
| UPCL           | UDUPI TPP          |                       0   |                       0   | 672.2                     |                       0   |
| HNPC           | VIZAG TPP          |                       0   |                       0   | 42.4                      |                       0   |
| KPCL           | BELLARY TPS        |                       0   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                      77.9 |
| NTPC Ltd.      | FARAKKA STPS       |                       0   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                     339.8 |
| GMR ENERG      | GMR WARORA TPS     |                       0   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                     611   |
| SVPPL          | SVPL TPP           |                       0   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                      58.6 |
| TSPL           | TALWANDI SABO TPP  |                       0   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                     666.3 |
| TNGDL          | TUTICORIN TPS      |                       0   |                       0   | 0.0                       |                     269   |
| GRAND TOTAL    | GRAND TOTAL        |                    4375.8 |                    1155.9 | 995.0                     |                    9565.2 |

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