Contributions of power generation to air pollution and associated health risks in India: current status and control scenarios

Abstract Coal based power plants are the biggest source of air pollution from power sector and thus it becomes imperative to study its contribution to air pollution in India. This study estimates impact of power generation on pollutant concentrations and associated mortality across India in current scenario and compares with three other control policy intervention scenarios in 2015. About 60% of total power generated in India in 2015 was from coal fired plants which contributed to about 49%, 34%, 6.6% & 6% of SO2, NOx, PMfine and CO emissions in India. Contribution of power plants to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was the highest in winter (14.12 μg/m3) and lowest in monsoon (1.99 μg/m3). SO4− and NO3− contributed the most (65%–97%) to total PM2.5 attributed to power plants indicating maximum reduction in secondary inorganic aerosols due to implementation of regulating policies on power plants. Among the 3 control policy intervention scenarios on power plants, COPP scenario reflecting implementation of emission standards on current operating plants, was found to be the best scenario resulting in reduction of pollutant concentrations. It resulted in reduction of about 9 μg/m3 in PM2.5 concentration which in turn lead to 73,209 lives saved and increase in about 1.7 Years of life lost/person (YLL/person). On the other hand, in case of UCPP and CNPP scenarios where regulating policies were implemented only in under construction and new power plants respectively resulted in increased PM2.5 concentration of about 8.22 μg/m3 and 19.03 μg/m3 and also 50,200 and 1,15,894 extra premature mortality.