Centre eases sulphur emission rules for coal power plants, reversing decade-old mandate

India has reversed a decade-old mandate to install $30 billion worth of clean-air equipment, easing sulphur emission rules for most coal-fired power plants, a government order said.

Reuters in December reported the government was reviewing 2015 norms that required nearly 540 coal-based power units to install flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems that remove sulphur from the plants' exhaust gases in phases starting in 2027.

The federal environment ministry late on Friday issued a gazette notification that exempted 79% of the coal-fired power plants, outside a 10-km (6 mile) radius of populated and polluted cities, from the 2015 mandate.

The mandate to install FGD for another 11% of the plants near populated cities would be taken on a "case-to-case basis," the notification said.

The balance of 10% of the coal-fired power plants closer to New Delhi and other cities with a million-plus population will be required to install the desulphurisation equipment by December 2027, according to the new mandate.

The notification comes after state-run NTPC, India's top electricity producer, spent about $4 billion on installing the equipment at about 11% of the power plants, and about 50% of the units either placed orders for the desulphurisation systems or are installing them.

The Friday notification did not mention the impact on the competitiveness or recovery of costs by these power plants.

It said the decision was taken after the Central Pollution Control Board carried out a detailed analysis of the increase in "carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere due to operation of control measures being deployed."