New thermal plants: A reality check

The quest to secure India's energy future should not lead to suboptimal policy solutions

The five-yearly exercise of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to frame a National Electricity Plan (NEP) kicked off last year with the task of assuring power supply at the lowest prices. The draft NEP is currently being finalised. The challenge is that this recommends creation of new capacity of up to 51 GW (25 per cent of existing capacity) of coal-fired plants.

This does raise eyebrows when India is committed to a net-zero emissions scenario by 2070. If it must, then the obvious answer leans towards the lowest hanging fruit — improve the performance of the existing plants and bump