World Bank approves USD 180-mn loan for power plants in India

Lalit K Jha

Washington, June 19 (PTI) The World Bank on Friday
approved a USD 180-million loan for the renovation and
modernisation of old, polluting and inefficient coal-fired
power plants in India, in a move that could help lower carbon
emissions.

"The project, which is expected to lower carbon emissions
and boost power production at these plants, is co-financed
with a USD 45.4-million grant from the Global Environment
Facility (GEF)," the funding agency said in a statement.

This would be the first step in a decade-long Indian plan
to augment power supply by rehabilitating a range of old
coal-fired plants even as the country moves to more
climate-friendly options for energy generation in the long
term, the World Bank said.

With the proposal, around 200-220 MW capacity each of the
three coal-fired power plants at Bandel in West Bengal, Koradi
in Maharashtra, and Panipat, Haryana will be modernised.

"If scaled up effectively to the remaining similar units
needing rehabilitation, India could be looking at emissions
cuts anywhere between 10 to 13 million tonnes of CO2
equivalent each year," Mikul Bhatia, World Bank Energy
Specialist and project team leader, said.

Currently, around 80 per cent of the electricity supplied
to homes, farms and factories in India come from coal-fired
generation plants, one-third of which are old, inefficient,
and emit harmful gases into the atmosphere, it said.

It has been designated the first phase of India's
National Renovation and Modernization Program which, over the
next decade, aims at rehabilitating old and inefficient power
plants with a cumulative capacity of 27,000 MW, or almost
one-fifth of India's installed power capacity of 145,000 MW.

The planned modernisation would help the country in
bringing the power-producing units to energy-efficiency levels
comparable to similar units in OECD countries, it added.

In addition to helping reduce carbon emissions from these
units, the project will also support efforts to control
particulate emission, and improve water treatment and ash
disposal at the plants, leading to better environment
conditions for people living in the vicinity.

"More than 400 million people do not have electricity in
India," said Roberto Zagha, World Bank Country Director for
India.

"This is the same as switching off power for the combined
populations of the US, UK and France. Making coal more
efficient and less polluting is an important step for India
even as the government develops longer-term solutions for
addressing its climate change concerns," he said. PTI