Decarbonising the coal-based thermal power sector in India can lead to over 30 per cent reduction in GHG emissions: CSE

• A new report from Centre for Science and Environment says India should focus on decarbonising coal, rather than ending its use 
• Demand for electricity is soaring, and coal-based power is expected to meet a major chunk of this. With coal capacity is slated to go beyond 280 gigawatt in near future, decarbonising the sector could be a key viable solution 
• CSE’s report highlights the urgent need for India to plan for target-based emission intensity reduction of coal power plants through interventions like efficiency improvement and biomass co-firing  

Download the new CSE report, access the proceedings of the CSE Round Table click here

New Delhi, July 1, 2025: “Electricity generation accounts for 39 per cent of India’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs) are a major contributor.But in a country like India, the focus cannot be on “ending” coal, but on decarbonising it”: said SunitaNarain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). She was speaking at a Round Table meeting where CSE released its new report, Decarbonising the Coal-based Thermal Power Sector in India. 

Though India has increased its non-fossil electricity capacity from a negligible base to nearly 46.3 per cent of its total installed capacity by March 2025, the generation and supply of electricity from renewables (solar and wind) remains intermittent and limited to a share of around 12 per cent. “It is for this reason that strong and strategic measures for emission reduction from coal-based power plants would be critical to reduce overall emissions from the sector,” said Narain. 

The CSE Round Table brought together all the major stakeholders including Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), GRID India, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Tata Power, Adani Power etc with think tanks, civil society and academia to discuss the pathways for decarbonising thermal power plants in India and the associated issues and challenges. 

Besides Narain, the other key experts and stakeholders who addressed the participants were Ashok Lavasa, former secretary of the Union ministries of Finance and Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Ramesh B Veeravalli, member (technical), CERC; Ajay Sharma, executive director(engineering), NTPC; and Rajiv K Porwal, director (system operations), GRID India. 

Based on the projections of the National Electricity Plan, the CSE report estimates that in a business-as-usual scenario, emissions from the TPP sector would go upto 1,332.7 million tonne(MT) by 2031-32 from 1,076.7 MT in 2022-23. Considering the share of coal power not going down as expected in recent years, the study also projects a scenario that if coal share continues to remain between 73 to 75 per cent, the emissions could go as high as 1,838 MT. 

Speaking at the meeting, Ashok Lavasa said: “The conversation has shifted from eliminating coal to focusing on just transition. Over the part 30-40 years, the climate discourse has shown the limits of a one-dimensional energy view and highlighted the need for energy security.” 

According to Ramesh Veeravalli, “research on full and cost-effective carbon capture, utilisation and storage is a critical lever for decarbonisingthe sector”. Rajiv Porwal made a case for flexibility and low-cost solutions: “We need grid flexibility to decarbonise the coal sector. Until affordable large-scale storage is available, thermal plants must stay flexible. For now, the focus should be on least-cost solutions.” 

The CSE study has benchmarked the power generating fleet technology-wise, based on its CO₂ emission intensity. Some interesting findings:

• Eight older units above 25 years of age were among the top performing units
• 49 units below the age of 20 years were among the least performing
• 95 sub-critical units below 25 years of age operate below the national average efficiency of the sub-critical fleet.

The study has also highlighted the under-utilisation of super and ultra-supercritical plants with 14 out of 72 super critical and eight out of 20 ultra-supercritical units operating under50 per cent plant load factor as of 2022-23. 

In terms of overall average PLF among the three technologies, the sub-critical fleet has the highest average PLF (plant load factor) of 68 per cent, compared to 62 per cent in the case of super critical and 54 per cent for ultra-supercritical fleets-- which are the reverse of their efficiency orders. 

The CSE report suggests three major technological levers for decarbonising the sector by 2031-32:

• Improving the efficiency of the existing fleet to benchmark levels
• Increased generation from super and ultra-super critical plants
• Accelerating biomass co-firing to 20 per cent.

According to Parth Kumar, programme manager, industrial pollution, CSE: “All of this together could bring down the emissions to 900 MT by 2031-32 -- which is a 32.4 per cent reduction from the business-as-usual scenario.” 

Adds Kumar: “The quantum of this reduction would be higher than the combined emissions of the iron and steel and cement sector in India.” 

The report recommends systemic changes to current mechanisms such as, considering emission parameters for merit order dispatch, revisiting the structure of power purchase agreements, re-purposing coal cess for decarbonisation and strengthening electricity demand forecasting in India.   

Says Nivit K Yadav, programme director, industrial pollution CSE: “We also recommendthat non-performing younger plants should be included under the renovation and modernisation policy.  Many units, even after using domestic coal with sub-critical technology,rank among the best performing ones in the country. This points to the possibility of achieving low emissions even with plants that are older and use domestic coal.” 

For more details, interviews etc, please contact Sukanya Nair: sukanya.nair@cseindia.org, 8816818864