The capital is now only procuring 5-8% of its power from unclean sources, a new analysis carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found. In comparison, until October 2019, Delhi was procuring nearly one-third of its electricity from unclean sources—primarily from dirty coal.
The analysis found nine states to be major defaulters, on average producing 60% of their coal-based electricity from unclean sources. In West Bengal, 84% of power stations supplying power to the state are unclean, it found.
According to the study, most of the stations supplying electricity to the state have not taken adequate measures to comply with the December 2015 sulphur dioxide norms notified by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
Soundaram Ramanathan, deputy programme manager, industrial pollution unit at CSE, said that Delhi had shown significant improvement over the last one and a half years, with the Singrauli thermal power plant also switching to cleaner options. “Now, only the Chandrapur thermal power plant is providing Delhi unclean energy, if SO2 norms are considered. If you consider water norms, then the Farakka and Singrauli thermal power plants can also be considered for Delhi,” said Ramanathan.
To help Delhi’s case further, its remaining coal-based power plant, Badarpur shut down in 2018. The other coal-based thermal power plant in Delhi, Rajghat, shut down in 2015.