India’s electricity generation will increase significantly from now onwards till the mid of this century, which will imply a much higher standard of living. India’s electricity generation doubles between 2015 and 2030, and again increases by 2.17 times between 2030 and 2050. The increasing electricity generation will also mean increased pressure on India’s water resources. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has come up with the rules for the power sector, which mandates that all power plants have to switch their once-through cooling system into recirculating cooling technology, which is an efficient cooling technology and limit the water consumption from India’s power plants. Ministry of Environment and Forest has taken stringent steps to control environment and water pollution. MoEF has recently issued notification for the consumption of water usage and emission standards within thermal power plants. Based on the notification issued by MoEF, all the existing thermal power plants are expected to reduce specific water consumption up to 3.5 m3/MWH. All the new power plants that are proposed to be established after 1 January 2017 are required to use a maximum of 2.5 m3/MWH as specific water consumption and achieve zero liquid discharge (ZLD).

81% of the total installed capacity of thermal power plants is based on subcritical technology, though this is set to change as all the new coal power plants in India are expected to be supercritical. Therefore, a huge amount of water is required in coal processing & handling, cooling purposes, and ash handling in thermal power plants, making them water guzzlers. This water consumption in Indian coal primarily based thermal power plant is around 1100 million m3, which is far over our neighbor country China. That has power generation capability is around 2.5 times than India. In Indian power industries have huge potential to cut back water consumption by adopting new techniques or by modifying the current techniques with minor changes.