NEW DELHI | Jun 28, 2016: The Centre has engaged a Council of Scientific & Industrial Research's (CSIR) laboratory to monitor the quality of coal before it is supplied to thermal power plants by companies.
The move is expected to improve performance of power plants and reduce emission as efficient power generation will result in less pollutants at generation stage. It will also help the coal-based thermal power plants to adhere to strict emission norms, notified last year by the environment ministry, to deal with air pollution.
The CSIR's laboratory - Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), Dhanbad, Jharkhand - on Tuesday signed an MoU with the Coal India Limited, Singareni Collieries Company Limited and power utilities for quality monitoring of coals in the presence of science & technology minister Harsh Vardhand and power minister Piyush Goyal.
Under this MoU, the CSIR-CIMFR will make use of its knowledge base support in maintaining the quality of coal at national level for the entire power sector. It is estimated that about 300 million metric tons of coal samples would be analysed for quality per year. The contract value of the project is minimum around Rs 250 crore per annum.
"A committee that has been constituted between NTPC, Coal India and other members has drawn up a complete mechanism on how coal sampling will be done, the procedure for testing the sample, reporting the findings and the necessary impact it will have on the billing, particularly at the loading end," Goyal said.
He said there has been a significant improvement in the quality of coal being supplied to consumers in the last two years.
The power minister also gave some firm assurances on the power availability front, saying there is enough electricity for the next 10 years. "Even if we have no hydro power projects, India will have sufficient power," he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Vardhan - who had recently visited the Dhanbad-based institution to verify its capacity and functioning - said energy has always been a top priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and this MoU marks "a historic moment".
The CSIR-CIMFR provides knowledge support to entire coal-based energy chain encompassing exploration, mining, exploitation and environment. It is also engaged in exploitation of other mineral deposits and excavation for hydro-electric projects, tunnels and railways.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)