Torrent Power allays environmental concerns over its Maharashtra Project

Raigad (Maharashtra), Oct 25: Torrent Power, which is building a 3000 MW Pumped Storage Project (PSP) in Karjat in Maharashtra, today said the reports appearing regarding felling of trees in Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary and environmental distress are based on incorrect information and it is pertinent to look at the matter in its overall perspective.

In a statement, the company said proposed power project is located about 16 km away from the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary and all the project components are outside the sanctuary boundary and the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).

Further, no project works are proposed near the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga temple, said Torrent Power, which is one of the largest companies in the country’s power sector with presence across the entire power value chain – generation, transmission and distribution.

The project has a limited land requirement of about 233 ha of forest land, which is a fraction of the larger Sahyadri forest in the area, the company said.

This project requires about 52 times lower land than a hydro project of similar scale. The intended operation is complementary to the river system and stores water which would have otherwise flowed to the sea, it said.

The company said an appraisal of flora, fauna and wildlife has been conducted and as part of the project, it proposes to undertake a number of ecology-friendly actions, including Wildlife Conservation, Catchment Area Treatment, compensatory afforestation and long-term habitat management.

Torrent would plant approx. 60,000 trees across the green belt, muck disposal site and other project areas, the statement said.

Further, about 30,000 trees would be planted on the 253 HA (625 acres) Compensatory Afforestation land provided by Torrent, it said.

In about 10 days of operation, the project offsets the CO2 from the trees felled for the project. Over the project life, the benefit is about 3,000 times the loss, the company said.

The statement said the project underwent a comprehensive statutory process over approx. 18 months, including detailed studies, public hearing, appraisal by the Expert Appraisal Committee and Forest Advisory Committee, multiple site inspections and clearance conditions before it received statutory clearances including Environmental Clearance, Forest Clearance and Forest Diversion Order.

The company said the project will supply power to Maharashtra and will play a critical role in Maharashtra’s grid stability and clean energy integration.

The power generation mix has undergone a major change in the last decade with addition of a significant amount of solar capacity and today solar contributes about one-third of the installed capacity in the county, it said.

With such high penetration of renewable power, particularly solar power which is available only during the day, energy storage has today become the need of the hour to ensure grid stability, peak load management and round-the-clock power, the statement said.

“Pumped Storage Project (PSP) is a clean and efficient long-duration storage solution with a project life of up to 80 years. The power grid, which would have otherwise depended on coal and other polluting sources for electricity generation during the evening/night, is able to use clean energy harnessed and stored during the day to meet the energy demand,” it said.

It said there are “significant environmental benefits” of the project which are:

• Clean power during peak hours: The 3,000 MW project would store surplus wind and solar power during the day and provide about 6,570 million units of power per year during evening peak or 525,600 MUs over 80 years, enough to meet the evening power requirement of 5.5 million homes.
• Tree Plantation: Torrent would plant approx. 60,000 trees across the green belt, muck disposal site and other project areas. Further, Torrent has identified 253 HA (625 acres) private land with tree cover of about 70,000 trees and handed over the same to Forest Department as Compensatory Afforestation (CA) land. An additional 30,000 trees will be planted on this land.

 

• Cleaner air: Each year about 36,800 tonnes of SO2, 10,600 tonnes of NOx, 1,200 tonnes of particulate matter and up to 0.66 tonnes of mercury are never released as against coal-based power generation.
• Water and land saved: About 19.7 billion litres of cooling water a year, enough for about 4 lakh people, stays in rivers. About 1.64 million tonnes of fly ash and 40 hectares of new open-cast mining a year are avoided compared to coal-based generation.
• Coal displaced: Burning of about 4.33 million tonnes of coal per year or about 346 MT over 80 years is avoided.
• CO2 avoided: About 5.85 million tonnes a year of CO2 and about 0.468 billion tonnes gets avoided over the project life as against coal-based generation. This is equivalent to taking about 3.75 million cars off the road, every year, for 80 years. The yearly CO2 saving is equivalent to about 266 million mature trees, or about 8,360 sq km of new forest. That is about 16.5% of Maharashtra’s entire forest cover, about 14 times the area of Mumbai.