Coal ash sparks concern
Pollution bodies sent notices to coal-based power units
Coal-based thermal power stations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, especially those run by TSGenco and APGenco, are failing to dispose of coal ash efficiently. Pollution Control Board officials from both states revealed that while notices were sent to almost all the thermal power plants regarding improper disposal of ash, most of them were sent to plants run by these state government franchises.
A TSPCB official said, “Coal-based power plants are disposing the ash as of now in ash ponds or giving them away for free to fly ash brick manufacturers. However, this is not being done properly. Another method for ash disposal, which was suggested recently, was dumping the ash in coal mines that have been shut down. However, the issue remains as ash gets washed out easily unlike sand which is used to fill gaps in coal mines that are shut.”
Another major issue among coal-based power plants in both states is lack of usage of modern electrostatic precipitators.
While some of the plants have bought the equipment, they are unable to get the permission from the state governments to connect these precipitators in their plants as for this the plants need to be shut down for more than a month. With the power crisis looming large in both states, none of the governments are ready to shut down the plants for the sake of pollution control.
There are four coalbased power plants each being run by TSGENCO and APGENCO in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
There are more than 60 such power plants on the anvil most of which are for Andhra Pradesh.
Of these there are more than 30 coal-based power plants that are of 1000 MW capacity or more. Some of them are mega power projects with planned capacities of more than 4000 MW.
If these projects materialize then almost every district of AP will have a coal-based thermal power plant. A more recent and major concern in Telangana is the 7600 MW proposed coal-based ther- mal power Dameracherla Nalgonda district.
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