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The Health Effects of Coal Electricity Generation in India

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  • Cropper, Maureen

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Gamkhar, Shama
  • Malik, Kabir
  • Limonov, Alex
  • Partridge, Ian

Abstract

To help inform pollution control policies in the Indian electricity sector we estimate the health damages associated with particulate matter, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from individual coal-fired power plants. We calculate the damages per ton of pollutant for each of 89 plants and compute total damages in 2008, by pollutant, for 63 plants. We estimate health damages by combining data on power plant emissions of particulate matter, SO2 and NOx with reduced-form intake fraction models that link emissions to changes in population-weighted ambient concentrations of fine particles. Concentration-response functions for fine particles from Pope et al. (2002) are used to estimate premature cardiopulmonary deaths associated with air emissions for persons 30 and older. Our results suggest that 75 percent of premature deaths are associated with fine particles that result from SO2 emissions. After characterizing the distribution of premature mortality across plants we calculate the health benefits and cost-per-life saved of the flue-gas desulfurization unit installed at the Dahanu power plant in Maharashtra and the health benefits of coal washing at the Rihand power plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Suggested Citation

  • Cropper, Maureen & Gamkhar, Shama & Malik, Kabir & Limonov, Alex & Partridge, Ian, 2012. "The Health Effects of Coal Electricity Generation in India," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-25, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-12-25
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    Cited by:

    1. Michael Greenstone & Rema Hanna, 2014. "Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3038-3072, October.
    2. Sugathan, Anish & Bhangale, Ritesh & Kansal, Vishal & Hulke, Unmil, 2018. "How can Indian power plants cost-effectively meet the new sulfur emission standards? Policy evaluation using marginal abatement cost-curves," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 124-137.
    3. Nicholas Ryan, 2020. "Contract Enforcement and Productive Efficiency: Evidence From the Bidding and Renegotiation of Power Contracts in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 383-424, March.
    4. Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal & Ali, Qamar & Ashfaq, Muhammad, 2018. "The nexus between greenhouse gas emission, electricity production, renewable energy and agriculture in Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 437-451.
    5. Ying Tung Chan, 2019. "Optimal Environmental Tax Rate in an Open Economy with Labor Migration—An E-DSGE Model Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-38, September.
    6. Barrows, Geoffrey & Garg, Teevrat & Jha, Akshaya, 2019. "The Health Costs of Coal-Fired Power Plants in India," IZA Discussion Papers 12838, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Nazar, Roshna & Srinivasan, Shweta L. & Kanudia, Amit & Asundi, Jai, 2021. "Implication of emission regulation on cost and tariffs of coal-based power plants in India: A system modelling approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PB).
    8. Nicholas Ryan, 2019. "Contract Enforcement and Productive Efficiency: Evidence from the Bidding and Renegotiation of Power Contracts in India," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2164, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    9. Partridge, Ian, 2013. "Renewable electricity generation in India—A learning rate analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 906-915.
    10. Mani, Muthukumara & Markandya, Anil & Sagar, Aarsi & Strukova, Elena, 2012. "An analysis of physical and monetary losses of environmental health and natural resources in India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6219, The World Bank.
    11. Parry, Ian, 2015. "Designing Fiscal Policy to Address the External Costs of Energy," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 8(1), pages 1-56, May.
    12. Nicholas Ryan, 2019. "Contract Enforcement and Productive Efficiency: Evidence from the Bidding and Renegotiation of Power Contracts in India," NBER Working Papers 25547, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Prasad, Sanjeev K. & Mangaraj, B.K., 2022. "A multi-objective competitive-design framework for fuel procurement planning in coal-fired power plants for sustainable operations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    14. Ian Parry, Dirk Heine, Shanjun Li, and Eliza Lis, 2014. "How Should Different Countries Tax Fuels to Correct Environmental Externalities?," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    15. Chen, Victor L. & Delmas, Magali A. & Locke, Stephen L. & Singh, Amarjeet, 2017. "Information strategies for energy conservation: A field experiment in India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 215-227.
    16. Peter A. Lang, 2017. "Nuclear Power Learning and Deployment Rates; Disruption and Global Benefits Forgone," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, December.
    17. Gilmore, Elisabeth A. & Patwardhan, Anand, 2016. "Passenger vehicles that minimize the costs of ownership and environmental damages in the Indian market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 863-872.
    18. Gupta, Aashish & Spears, Dean, 2017. "Health externalities of India's expansion of coal plants: Evidence from a national panel of 40,000 households," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 262-276.
    19. Nandal, Vinod & Kumar, Raj & Singh, S.K., 2019. "Barriers identification and analysis of solar power implementation in Indian thermal power plants: An Interpretative Structural Modeling approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Charles N. Mock & Rachel Nugent & Olive Kobusingye & Kirk R. Smith, 2017. "Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28576, December.
    21. Nicholas Ryan, 2019. "Contract Enforcement and Productive Efficiency: Evidence from the Bidding and Renegotiation of Power Contracts in India," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2164R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Jul 2019.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    coal-fired power plants; particulate matter; electricity; health damages; pollution control; concentration-response function; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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