New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) The government has suggested the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to consider penalising thermal power plants (TPPs) that are not taking enough steps to curb emissions and not co-firing sufficient quantities of biomass, according to a statement.The Union Power Ministry would also consider reducing coal supply to TPPs not complying with its policy on biomass co-firing, it said.   Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Power Minister RK Singh co-chaired a review meeting and noted that the target of co-firing five per cent of biomass with coal in TPPs was "still far off".The meeting saw the participation of senior officials from the two ministries, state governments of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh; heads of all power utilities in the NCR region, CAQM, Central Electricity Authority and the Central Pollution Control Board.To address the issue of air pollution and to reduce the carbon footprint of thermal power generation, the Ministry of Power issued a revised policy in October last year for the use of agro residue-based biomass and mandated the use of five to seven per cent of biomass co-fired along with the coal for all TPPs.Officials said the number of TPPS co-firing biomass pellets has increased from eight in 2020-21 to 39 now. In the NCR region, 10 TPPs have started co-firing.  "However, the amount of biomass co-fired is still lagging," the Environment Ministry said in the statement.Till date, 83,066 MT of biomass has been co-fired in 39 thermal power plants across the country. In the NCR region, the biomass co-fired is 22,696 MT of which NTPC accounts for 95 per cent, it said."(The) CAQM was also communicated to start considering penal provisions on TPPs which are not taking enough steps to curb emissions and not co-firing sufficient quantities of biomass," the statement read."The Power Ministry would consider reduction in coal supply to thermal power plants that do not comply with its policy on biomass co-firing," it said.The meeting emphasised that the health and safety of citizens was topmost priority and no one has the right to put innocent lives in danger.Officials said TPPs have floated a large number of tenders to procure biomass and the situation is expected to improve when the supply starts.The power minister said till that time, power utilities should procure biomass through alternate methods such as spot market or commission agents as the harvesting season has already begun.He said power utilities should make all out efforts to complete the procurement process under the existing tenders as soon as possible.The government has also directed all the TPPs, including the private ones, in the NCR region to install biomass pellet manufacturing plants on their premises.Non-compliance in this regard would be viewed very strictly, Singh said. PTI GVS TDS TDS TDS