NEW DELHI: India's first-ever environmental rating of coal-based power plants has found that the country’s thermal power generating units are among the “most inefficient” in the world in terms of compliance of pollution norms, use of resources and overall operation efficiency.Though the private sector thermal plants in the country perform better than the government-owned ones, there is an “immense scope for improvement” in almost all the units so that they can pollute less and generate more electricity with efficient use of available resources.The study behind those ratings, done by experts of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), also noted that Delhi is home to one of the most polluting power plants – Badarpur Thermal Power Plant of the NTPC – of the country. It certainly contributed to turning the Capital into the most polluted city in the world.The study, done under CSE’s Green Rating Project (GRP), analyzed and rated 47 coal-based thermal power plants from across the country on a variety of environmental and energy parameters. About half of all the plants operating in 2011-12 were selected for the rating.“The objective of the study was to give a clear picture of the environmental performance of the sector. Our finding is that in India, where the demand for power is increasing, power plants are performing way below the global benchmarks”, said Sunita Narain ahead of the release of the study on Saturday.She said, “Given the rapid increase in coal-based power projected by the government, stress on precious resources like water and land will increase and air and water pollution will worsen, unless corrective measures are taken by the industry and policy-makers”.The study was released jointly by father of the green revolution M S Swaminathan, environment secretary Ashok Lavasa and chief economic advisor of the government Arvind Subramanian here in a function, organized to award the greenest power plants.Three top power plants (CSES- Budge Budge, JSWEL-Toranagallu and Tata-Trombay) were awarded for their overall environmental performance, while two others received awards for their efficient use of resources such as energy and water.Speaking about the rating programme, CSE’s deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said, “The Green Rating Project is one of the very few public-disclosure projects in the world in which a non-governmental, non-industry organization rates the environmental performance of industries and makes the results public. We follow a robust and transparent process and the outcomes of our ratings (of other sectors) have been used by companies as well as policymakers to improve policies and practices.”The study found that the country’s thermal power plants are estimated to withdraw around 22 billion cubic meter of water, which is over half of India’s domestic water need. It also noted that 55% of the units were violating air pollution standards which are already extremely lax.“The performance of the NTPC, the largest coal-power producing company in India, was found to be below par. The NTPC did not disclose its data, and hence was rated based on a primary survey and publicly available information”, said lead author of the study Priyavrat Bhati.The six plants of NTPC that were rated received scores very low on almost all parameters. The poorest of the lot was Delhi’s Badarpur plant.Speaking about methodology of the rating study, Bhati said, “The project selected a diverse group of plants from all regions, of various vintages, sizes and technologies and owned by all major companies, including state and central ones, to ensure as wide a representation as possible. The GRP is a participatory process -- companies voluntarily disclose data and permit the GRP team to independently scrutinize the plants and their records”.The plants were rated on around 60 parameters covering everything from coal and water use and plant efficiency to air and water pollution and ash management. Local community views and impacts on them were given due weight-age along with the plants’ compliance record and environment policies. The ratings involve comparing the performance of the plants against the best practices.Bhati, programme director of CSE’s sustainable industrialisation team (which is behind this rating project), said: “Some of the plants did not want to participate. Yet, we assessed them on the basis of field-level surveys and publicly available data. We were encouraged by the transparency showed by a number of state-owned plants that voluntarily disclosed data despite being inefficient and highly polluting.”* Top three in terms of overall environmental performance1. CESC - Budge Budge (West Bengal) 2. JSWEL – Toranagallu (Karnataka) 3. Tata Power – Trombay (Maharashtra)* Tata Power – Mundra (Gujarat) is best in terms of energy efficiency* State-owned Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd is best performer in terms of water use* Worst three in terms of overall environmental performance1. PTPS, Patratu of Jharkhand State Electricity Board 2. UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited’s plant, Obra 3. Damodar Valley Corporation, Bokaro ‘B’* Monitoring by regulators should be strengthened – they should be given more powers (including imposing stiff penalties) to enforce compliance * Ash policy should support higher usage of ash * Incentives to ensure improvement in capacity utilization * Old inefficient plants should be closed at an aggressive pace * Clearances for enhanced capacities should be based on best achievable water consumption