Lok Sabha Question No. 300 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-07-19
Subject: Shortage of Water for Thermal Power Plants
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: PONGULETI SRINIVASA REDDY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.300 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.07.2018

## SHORTAGE OF WATER FOR THERMAL POWER PLANTS

300. SHRI PONGULETI SRINIVASA REDDY:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  nearly  90%  of  thermal  power  plants  in  the  country  which  rely  on  fresh water for cooling face risk of serious outages because of shortage of water;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reasons  for  such  prevailing  situation  in  the country, thermal power plants, unit-wise and State-wise;
- (c) the findings of the World Resources Institute about our country's situation of each thermal plant in this regard;
- (d) whether the Government has any details of the loss of terawatt hours of thermal power  generation  due  to  water  shortages  during  each  of  the  last  three  years  and  the current  year  and  cancelling  out  the  growth  in  the  country's  total  electricity  generation during the last three years and the current year and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (e) whether about 40% of the country's thermal power plants are facing great stress in terms of water availability, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (f) the corrective steps being taken to avoid such situation in future at each thermal plant?

## 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.  Details of the loss of generation (state-wise & unit-wise) incurred due  to  water  shortage  during  the  financial  year  2017-18  in  the  thermal  stations  in  the country is annexed.
- (c) & (d) : The  World  Resources  Institute  in  one  of  its  working  papers  published  in January 2018, has stated that India's thermal power sector is dependent on water and has been  suffering  from  water  shortages.  However,  as  the  details  below  will  show,  losses because of shortage of water are virtually negligible.

The details of loss of terawatt hours (TWh) of thermal power generation due to  water  shortages  reported  by  the  stations  during  the  last  three  years  i.e.  from  years 2015-16 to 2017-18 & current year 2018-19 (Up to May 2018) are given as under:

| Year                     |   Losses due to Water shortage (TWh) |   Percentage of Losses due to water Shortage with respect to Total Generation |
|--------------------------|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2015-16                  |                                 1    |                                                                          0.08 |
| 2016-17                  |                                 9.57 |                                                                          0.77 |
| 2017-18                  |                                 4.21 |                                                                          0.32 |
| 2018-19 (Up to May 2018) |                                 0.75 |                                                                          0.32 |

……….2.

Loss of generation due to outages on account of water shortages however, does not lead to overall  reduction  in  growth  of  electricity  generation,  as  the  generation requirements are met through other generation units in the country.

- (e) : No, Madam.

(f) : The corrective steps/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. Further, this waste water generated is used for low grade applications like ash handling, coal dust suppression and gardening etc.
- V. Ministry of Environment, Forest &  Climate Change  (MoEF&CC)  has  notified Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2015 dated 07.12.2015 and Environment  (Protection)  Amendment  Rules  2018  related  to  water  consumption limit for existing and future thermal power plants, which are as under:
- i. All the existing thermal plants with Once-Through-Cooling(OTC) system shall install  Cooling  Tower(CT)  and  achieve  specific  water  consumption  upto Maximum  of  3.5  m3/MWh  within  a  period  of  two  years  from  the  date  of notification.
- ii. All existing Cooling Tower based plants to reduce specific water consumption upto maximum of 3.5 m3/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  Maximum  of  3.0  m3/MWh  and  achieve  zero  waste water discharge.

Further,  the  aforesaid provision is not applicable to Thermal Power Plants using sea water.

- 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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ANNEX ANNEX REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) & (b) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION

NO. 300 TO BE ANSWERED IN THE LOK SABHA ON 19.07.2018. *********** Outage due to Water Shortage from 01-Apr-2017 to 31-Mar-2018

| STATE        | STATION             | UNIT   |   CAPACITY (MW) | TRIP DATE   | SYNC DATE   |   Duration Days |
|--------------|---------------------|--------|-----------------|-------------|-------------|-----------------|
| PUNJAB       | TALWANDI SABO TPP 2 |        |             660 | 09-Apr-17   | 17-Apr-17   |               8 |
| CHHATTISGARH | NAWAPARA TPP        | 1      |             300 | 19-May-17   | 21-Jun-17   |              33 |
| CHHATTISGARH | NAWAPARA TPP        | 2      |             300 | 20-May-17   | 24-Jun-17   |              35 |
| KARNATAKA    | BELLARY TPS         | 2      |             500 | 07-Jun-17   | 13-Sep-17   |              98 |
| BIHAR        | MUZAFFARPUR TPS     | 3      |             195 | 11-Aug-17   | 14-Oct-17   |              64 |
| BIHAR        | MUZAFFARPUR TPS     | 2      |             110 | 28-Aug-17   | 07-Sep-17   |              10 |
| BIHAR        | MUZAFFARPUR TPS     | 1      |             110 | 03-Nov-17   | 22-Nov-17   |              19 |
| BIHAR        | MUZAFFARPUR TPS     | 4      |             195 | 04-Nov-17   | 23-Dec-17   |              49 |
| BIHAR        | MUZAFFARPUR TPS     | 2      |             110 | 30-Dec-17   | 06-Jan-18   |               7 |
| MAHARASHTRA  | STPS                | 6      |             500 | 04-Jan-18   | 01-Feb-18   |              28 |
| MAHARASHTRA  | STPS                | 3      |             210 | 03-Dec-17   | Continued   |             118 |
| MAHARASHTRA  | STPS                | 4      |             210 | 03-Dec-17   | Continued   |             118 |
| MAHARASHTRA  | PARAS TPS           | 4      |             250 | 12-Jan-18   | 22-Jan-18   |              10 |
| GUJARAT      | BHAVNAGAR CFBC TPP  | 1      |             250 | 07-Feb-18   | 15-Feb-18   |               8 |
| GUJARAT      | BHAVNAGAR CFBC TPP  | 1      |             250 | 02-Mar-18   | 26-Mar-18   |              24 |

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