Bengaluru Urban among top districts with high PM2.5 emissions from diesel generator sets

Bengaluru Urban ranks among the top districts in the country to have the highest PM2.5 emissions from almost all categories of diesel generator (DG) sets and the highest total PM2.5 emissions from all types of DG sets.

According to findings of a report, “Switch on, Smoke off: Reducing Emissions from Diesel Generator Set” released by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Patna (Bihar), Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), Bengaluru Urban (Karnataka), Mumbai city (Maharashtra), and North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) have the highest PM2.5 emissions from almost all categories of DG sets and the highest total PM2.5 emissions from all types of DG sets.

As per the ranking of different districts based on PM2.5 emissions from different categories of DG sets, Bengaluru Urban ranks third among the top 10 districts in the 5–75 kVA (kilovolt-amperes) category.

In the 76–375 kVA category, it ranks second, in the 376–750 kVA and above 750 kVA categories, Bengaluru Urban ranks third and sixth, respectively. The only other district from Karnataka to feature in this list is Belagavi, ranked 10th in the 76–375 kVA category.

Frequent power cuts

The report further stated that many districts in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra show high PM2.5 emissions, driven by high installed capacities of DG sets and frequent power cuts.

“DG sets, used for power backup across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, are prominent hyperlocal sources of air and noise pollution throughout India. The current study estimated that a total of 14.7 lakh DG sets, with a capacity of over 5 kVA and a cumulative capacity of 2,72,576 MVA, were operational in India in 2022,” said the report.

It further said that these DG sets contributed to 42 Gg of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 µm (PM2.5), 23 Gg of black carbon, and 877 Gg of nitrogen oxides (NOX) in India. “Additionally, older and poorly maintained DG sets tend to emit significantly more than regular ones and were termed as super-emitters in this study,” the report states.

The report said that based on the procured data, it was found that DG sets are most commonly used in commercial (40%) and industrial (34%) sectors.

“In the commercial sector, DG sets are used in retail establishments (25%), telecom towers (15%), hotels (15%), offices (15%), hospitals (10%), and other areas. In the industrial sector, DG sets are primarily used in manufacturing industries (74%),” it said.