In an endeavour to spread awareness on the pressing need to safeguard the environment, Maharatna power company, NTPC Ltd., organised a host of activities across its plant locations and corporate offices on June 5 to commemorate the World Environment Day.
Placing huge emphasis on the need for environment protection, NTPC organised competitions, lectures and cultural events for its employees and their family members.
In addition to this, employees, in an awareness drive called “Prabhat Pheri” that is held every year on World Environment Day, got together and walked in huge numbers in the morning, carrying out mass tree plantation drives and taking pledge to protect the environment.
This year, in line with World Environment Day’s official theme ‘Beat Air Pollution’, NTPC reiterated its mission to curb and control air pollution, one of the major thrust areas for the organisation. NTPC has been assiduously undertaking tree plantation drives covering vast areas of land in and around its projects.
So far, NTPC has planted more than 34 million trees throughout the country which includes 10 million trees planted during 2016-17 under the accelerated aforestation programme followed by 1 million tree plantation during 2017-18 in line with NDC-2030 of Nation. NTPC further plans to undertake the plantation of 1 million tree / annum.
In addition to this, NTPC has equipped its units with Electro Static Precipitators (ESP) with more than 99.9 % efficiency. The company has also been undertaking massive renovation & modernization to upgrade the equipment (ESP) in accordance with the new emission norms.
In its pursuit to reduce global carbon emissions, NTPC has also adopted Super Critical and Advanced Super Critical Technology for all new generation units to ensure higher efficiency and lower emissions.
To control air quality, NTPC has also equipped its power stations with continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) in order to capture the real time ambient air quality parameters and Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) to monitor emissions for particulates, SOx and NOx.
The real-time data is also transmitted to Central Pollution Control Board and respective State Pollution Control Boards/ PCCs.
Not only air pollution, NTPC has also been committed towards controlling water and soil pollution. Towards water conservation, NTPC power stations are provided with advanced waste water treatment facilities namely Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), Liquid Waste Treatment Plants (LWTP), Coal Slurry Settling Pit (CSSP), Neutralisation plants, Ash Water Recirculation System (AWRS).
NTPC plants are provided with closed cycle condenser cooling water systems with higher Cycle of Concentration (COC), rain water harvesting, reuse of treated effluent in ash slurry disposal and reuse of treated sewage effluent for horticulture purposes.
In order to conserve water and to meet new norms for specific water consumption, NTPC has taken a proactive approach towards making all its power stations to operate with ZLD (Zero liquid discharge). In addition to this, NTPC has decided to introduce Air cooled Condenser Technology in place of conventional water cooling at two of its upcoming projects.
Also, as part of the initiative, NTPC has equipped all its power stations with Continuous Effluent Quality monitoring system (EQMS) for pH, Suspended Solids and Oil in effluents. The real-time data is transmitted to Central Pollution Control Board and respective State Pollution Control Boards/ PCCs.
To prevent soil pollution, all the solid wastes generated are managed as per the existing provision of respective waste management rules notified by MoEF&CC and amendments thereof. Utmost importance is given for fly ash utilisation in cement, brick, RMC and other industries so that land requirement for waste disposal is minimal.
Additionally, special training and environmental awareness sessions are organized for employees for proper handling of the chemicals and wastes in order to avoid spillages and thereby soil pollution. NTPC also has a well defined Bio-Diversity Plan put in place.
As a responsible Corporate, NTPC Ltd, over the years has envisaged environment protection and management practices as one of its prime responsibilities and has focused its efforts towards minimizing the impact of its operation on surrounding environment and ecosystem.