Environmental Equipment Project for Power Plants

As of the time of the project appraisal, the National Power Corporation (NPC) had given priority to the construction of a power station in order to ameliorate a serious shortage in electricity. The construction of power stations had resulted in some improvement of the gap between supply and demand, but pollution had become a serious problem, since action had not been taken to address the environmental impact of new and existing power plants: especially those power plants that use fossil fuel. Failure to take remedial action could have exacerbated the environmental problems, causing adverse impacts on the environment on surrounding residents, which would have likely created difficulty for the NPC in promoting its Power Development Plan. This in turn would have undermined NPC’s progress in increasing power supplies, resulting in further outstripping of supply by growing demand. To address these concerns, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which is one of the frameworks to regulate air pollutants emission from industry sector and was established within the sphere of Clean Air Act, was amended in March 1993 to require power entities to monitor the environment around their stations. The NPC was required to establish a monitoring organization and to ensure compliance with the new regulations. As a further step, the NPC planned to improve the environmental monitoring facilities at its power plants.