Lok Sabha Question No. 1059 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-02-08
Subject: Shortage of Water for Power Plants
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: JYOTIRADITYA MADHAVRAO SCINDIA, KAMAL NATH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1059 TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.02.2018

## SHORTAGE OF WATER FOR POWER PLANTS

1059. SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA: SHRI KAMAL NATH:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

(a) whether  thermal  power  plants  in  the  country  which  rely  on  fresh  water cooling are facing serious outages because of shortage of water;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the World Resources Institute (WRI) in its latest report has stated that many thermal utilities companies face shut downs due to water shortage;

(d) if so, the facts and details thereof; and

(e) the remedial measures taken or proposed to be taken by the Government to address the problem in an effective way?

## A N S W E R

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

( SHRI  R. K. SINGH )

(a) to (d) : Thermal Power Stations relying on fresh water for cooling face outages sometimes due to constraints in water availability.

The World Resources Institute in one of its working papers published in Jan-2018, has stated that India's thermal power sector is dependent on water and has been suffering from water shortages.

According  to  data  with  Central  Electricity  Authority  (CEA)  total outage due to water shortage from 2015-16 to 2017-18 vary from 0.2% to 2% of the total outage losses incurred in the thermal stations in the country. Details of the total losses incurred in the thermal stations in the country are as follows:

............2.

## Loss of Generation due to water shortage from 2015-16 to 2017-18

| Year    |   Duration (Hours) |   Loss due to Water shortage (MU) |   Total Loss (MU) |   Loss due to Water shortage as % of total loss |
|---------|--------------------|-----------------------------------|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
| 2015-16 |            2162.95 |                            995.02 |            378815 |                                            0.26 |
| 2016-17 |           28595.8  |                           9565.24 |            472545 |                                            2.02 |
| 2017-18 |            8247.25 |                           2529.24 |            409930 |                                            0.62 |

(e) : The  remedial  measures  being  adopted  to  reduce  consumption  of water in Thermal Power Plants are as under:

- 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. 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:
6. (i) All plants with Once-Through-Cooling (OTC) shall install Cooling Tower(CT)  and  achieve  specific  water  consumption  upto  Maximum  of 3.5 m 3 /MWh within a period of two years from the date of publication of this notification.
7. (ii) All  existing  Cooling  Tower  based  plants  to  reduce  specific  water consumption up to maximum of 3.5m 3 /MWh within a period of two years from the date of publication of this notification.
8. (iii) New plants to be installed after 1st January, 2017 shall have to meet specific water consumption upto Maximum of 2.5m3/MWh and achieve zero waste water discharged.
- VI. The Tariff Policy, 2016 mandates use of treated sewage water from Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) of Municipality / local bodies by the Thermal Power Plants 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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