Thermal power plants in India using more water than permitted limit: RTI

About 51% of 156 thermal plants across 12 states whose data could be obtained declared themselves compliant with water norms early this year.

Business Standard : In addition to polluting the air and warming the planet, India’s thermal power plants are consuming excessive amounts of water, in many cases beyond the permissible limits set by the environment ministry, according to information obtained through the Right to Information Act (RTI).

About 51% of 156 thermal plants across 12 states whose data could be obtained declared themselves compliant with water norms early this year, said the RTI response received by the Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, a research centre that analyses water and energy issues in India.

This excessive water consumption is causing water stress, we explain later, which affects households, farms and industries in the plant’s neighbourhood. It is also resulting in the shut-down of the thermal plants. Upto 40% of India’s thermal plants are located in areas facing acute water shortages, according to an analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI), and are worsening the water crisis there. In this analysis, WRI has categorised ‘thermal power plants’ as those where steam is generated and water cooling is needed. This would include coal, oil, biomass and nuclear. In total, India has 399 such plants.

About 600 million Indians live with “high-to-extreme water stress”, where over 40% of annually available surface water is used every year, according to a 2018 study by government think-tank Niti Aayog, as IndiaSpend reported on June 25, 2018.

Upto 19% of the remaining plants declared themselves noncompliant, as per the RTI responses. The others either did not supply any data or offered insufficient information. Some plants were found shut. Also, 14 plants reported using sea water which exempts them from complying with water norms.

As of August 30, 2019, there were 269 thermal power plants in India, according to the Central Electricity Authority. Taken together, these plants consume 87.8% of the total amount of water consumed by the industrial sector, according to a study conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). To put this in perspective, such amounts of water could fulfil the water needs of four cities for two days.

Renewable energy units cause far less water stress: Solar plants, for example, consume only a fraction of the water used by thermal plants, as we explain later, and wind energy does not need any water at all.