Plants upgrade: Power tariff may rise by up to 93p

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New Delhi, Jan 2: Electricity tariffs across India are expected to rise by 62 to 93 paise per kilowatt-hour (kWh) during the first year of upgrades to coal-fired power plants, Power Minister RK Singh told Parliament Tuesday.
The government has estimated a capital expenditure of Rs88 lakh to Rs1.28 crore per megawatt for retrofitting the old plant to meet new emission norms.
“The ministry is not in favour of retrofitting the old plants and wants to use supercritical technology. The ministry has a policy for not going for retrofitting over 25-year old plants,” an official said.
The official further said, “The government does not want to continue with old technology… Besides environmental cost, they are less energy efficient.”
The installation of various equipment such as Flue-gas desulfurization for SOx control and conversion of open cycle to close cycle and increased cost of operation and maintenance could result in increase in tariff by 62 to 93 paise per unit in first year of the plant’s operation, said Power Minister R K Singh in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. Singh also told the House that the capital expenditure on retrofitting old plants to comply with new norms will be up to Rs1.28 crore per megawatt.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had issued revised environment norms on December 7, 2015. The ministry gave two years to meet these norm which already lapsed last month.