Delhi NCR residents' bodies demand incentives to upgrade DG sets per new emission norms

For Representational purpose

Residents’ welfare associations (RWA) across Delhi NCR have said that the government should provide incentives or subsidies to help get their DG sets retrofitted with Emission Control Devices (ECD), as demanded by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).

The CAQM has mandated that all diesel generators (DG) above 19 KW that do not run on LPG, propane, or butane will have to be retrofitted with ECDs and adopt a dual-fuel mode by September 30, 2023, across Delhi-NCR.

RWAs said that complying with the directives may result in additional expenditure to the tune of Rs 6-12 lakh (depending on the capacity of the DG set), as no subsidy has been announced.

Also Read: Centre’s air quality panel puts curb on use of DG sets in Delhi NCR

Rajiva Singh, President, Noida Federation of Apartment Owners Association (NOFAA), said the recent order means RWAs will have to plan, raise funds, create infrastructure, revise maintenance charges, and find vendors, among others.

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Residents' pain points

“For retrofitting and conversion of DG sets, proper government subsidies should be introduced to support such policies. Also, sufficient time is needed for the execution of such orders. Noida citizens have already been incurring heavy losses due to builder-buyer issues, hence any further financial burden on residents may not be acceptable,” Singh told Moneycontrol.

Converting a DG set to dual-fuel mode (70 percent gas, 30 percent diesel) costs around Rs 5-6 lakh, besides maintenance charges and other costs. Retrofitting DGs with EDCs costs much the same.

Gas-operated gensets are expensive, as the estimated cost of a 125 KW PNG (piped natural gas) genset is around Rs 10 lakh-15 lakh. Moreover, these are also not easily available, they pointed out.

Atul Goyal, President, United Residents Joint Action (URJA), an umbrella body of RWAs in Delhi, echoed similar concerns and said that CAQM's directions for retrofitting and adopting the dual-fuel module for gensets would put additional financial burden on RWAs. Hence, the government should either incentivise or subsidise RWAs.

“This additional financial burden will have to be borne by the RWAs, so it will ultimately fall on the residents. Since it is to be done before the start of the pollution season (between October to February), the government should subsidise or incentivise the process on the lines of the solar policy,” Goyal said.

Kartik Kumar, a resident of sector 109 in Gurugram, said that certain operations of condominiums cannot be compromised at any cost, such as running of lifts, water supply to overhead water tanks, fire-fighting alarms, sewage treatment plant, operations, security cameras, etc., so uninterrupted power supply is a must, which is ensured with DG sets.

He said that rather than RWAs investing in creating a new power backup infrastructure, the government should be investing in ensuring no break in power supplies to the condominiums.

Clean air important

“DG sets with a capacity of 82-100 KW, which are generally used for residential purposes, should be exempted from these norms. This new regime to curb pollution will mean additional expenses for RWAs, which are already short of funds,” he said.

Akash Vashishtha, an environment expert and a National Green Tribunal (NGT) lawyer, said, “Breathing clean and purified air is more important than anything else. Hence, the RWAs can curtail their expenditure on other heads and invest in this environment-friendly move. It will ultimately benefit the residents of Delhi-NCR the most.”