No Plans To Phase Out Coal-Based Thermal Power Plants : Union Power Minister R.K. Singh

The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri R.K. Singh, has informed Rajya Sabha that Government has not formulated any plan to phase out the old coal-based thermal power plants in the country; Central Electricity Authority vide an advisory dated 20.01.2023 suggested that no retirement or re-purposing of coal-based power stations will be done before 2030, considering the expected energy demand scenario and availability of capacity in future. Thermal Power Plants were also advised implementation of Renovations & Modernisation (R&M) and Life Extension (LE) of their units for running up to 2030 and beyond or operating in two shift mode to facilitate Solar and Wind energy integration into the grid, wherever feasible. Generation is a delicensed activity as per Section 7 of the Electricity Act, 2003 and phasing out/retirement of units is decided by Power generating companies based on their own techno-economic and environmental reasons.

The Minister further informed that in order to achieve higher efficiencies and to reduce carbon footprint, a large number of thermal power plants operating in the country have already adopted super-critical/Ultra Super-critical technologies. As on date, 94 coal based thermal units of total capacity of 65150 MW are operating with super-critical/Ultra super-critical technologies.