Half of Ennore’s thermal power data invalid or non-compliant

A new report by the Save Ennore Creek Campaign, as reported by The New Indian Express, has found that Ennore’s thermal power plants either violated air pollution norms or failed to provide valid emissions data nearly 49% of the time during the winter season (November 2024 to January 2025). The findings raise serious concerns about enforcement by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).

The report, titled Breathless in Ennore, analysed real-time stack emission data from three major thermal plants: North Chennai Thermal Power Station Stage I (NCTPS I), Stage II (NCTPS II), and NTECL Vallur. The data was sourced from TNPCB’s CARE Air Centre (CAC).

According to the findings, NCTPS II recorded zero compliance. Data was either invalid or missing for 96% of the monitoring period, and the remaining 4% showed emissions exceeding legal limits. NTECL Vallur violated sulphur dioxide (SO₂) norms for 80% of the winter, while NCTPS I was non-compliant for 23% of the time.

“When (on average) 49% of the time, there’s either no reliable data or emissions exceed the legal limit, it means regulators are blindfolded and communities are exposed,” said Durga Moorthy, the report’s author.

During winter, Chennai experiences temperature inversions that trap pollutants near the ground, worsening air quality. The report notes that city-wide winter PM2.5 levels are 3-40% higher than the annual average. With pollution in Ennore largely unregulated, the local impact is likely to be more severe.

Despite previous promises under the Manali Ennore Restoration and Rejuvenation Company (MERRC) that a dedicated command centre would ensure real-time monitoring and compliance, the report notes that neither consistent data nor corrective action has materialised. Even a court-directed mechanism to detect and penalise violations has not yielded results.

“There are Scheduled Castes, Tribes and Most Backward Communities living here, and we are being treated as expendable,” said A. Bhagath Singh of Namakkana Ennore Iyakkam. “This is environmental casteism.”

The report calls on the Tamil Nadu government to hold TNPCB accountable, take action against defaulting plants, and roll out a time-bound airshed management plan for the Ennore–Manali region. It warns that continued regulatory failure, despite the availability of data and legal powers, will lead to more health impacts and loss of life.

The TNPCB claims its CARE Air Centre has an inbuilt alarm system to alert both the board and the concerned industry of emission breaches. However, activists argue that continuous exceedances show a failure in enforcement. In a 2020 case, the National Green Tribunal’s southern bench had directed TNPCB to monitor Online Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (OCEMS) data, ensure industry-level checks, and initiate action if violations were found.

The latest findings, however, indicate that those orders have not translated into effective regulatory outcomes.