Approved Emission Reduction Plan for existing large combustion plants
6/13/2010
Additional measures have been incorporated which give rise to a more solid Plan with more ambitious objectives than those included in the first proposal.
The Council of Ministers has approved the National Emission Reduction Plan for large combustion plants in accordance with Directive 2001/80 (known as the LCP Directive) which establishes that Member states must significantly reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particles from existing large combustion plants, after 1 January 2008.
The National Emission Reduction Plan for Large Combustion Plants was adopted by the Government in November 2005 and referred to the European Commission for acceptance.
Following its presentation, the Commission granted existing plants the option of accepting the Emission Limit Values, therefore not entering in the "bubble" established in the Large Combustion Plants Reduction Plan. This has currently been accepted by all industrial sector large combustion plants, other than refining and power plants.
In May 2006, the Commission issued a series of observations on the procedure for calculating the "bubbles" and requested clarifications on some limit values and other issues. The responses and clarifications were sent to the Commission on 31 October 2006.
Incorporation of modifications
After the response of the Commission in April 2007, the modifications proposed by the same, as well as some subsequent modifications, have been incorporated. Likewise, errors observed in the initial National Emission Reduction Plan for Large Combustion Plants have been rectified and, at the same time, tables have been updated and new data provided by the companies has been incorporated. Additional measures have been incorporated which give rise to a more solid Plan with more ambitious objectives than those included in the first proposal.
It should mentioned that for its preparation this Plan has drawn on the first period of the National Allocation Plan stemming from the Trade in Greenhouse Gas Emission Rights directive. In the short and medium term, the Reduction Plan and the second phase of the National Allocation Plan must be interrelated, since technological improvements made to reduce the emission of contaminants involved in the Reduction Plan have been taken into account in the allocation of the 2008-2012 Allocation Plan.
Likewise, in relation to environmental air quality, the Air Quality Directives and the IPPC Directive (transposed to Spanish legislation in a 2002 Act) have been taken into account when applying existing technical and technological improvements to adapt local environmental conditions. This legislation has been taken into account both in the selection of locations where technologies to achieve the objective of not exceeding emission levels should be applied, and in the selection of the actual reduction technology.
By way of summary, the reduction of emissions is shown for the three contaminants following application of the Reduction Plan for the period 2008-2015.
SO2 N0X Particles
Annual emissions in 2001 (tpa) 885,183 218,673 29,565
LCP objective (tpa) 168,209 186,048 13,290
% Reduction of emissions with respect to 2001 81% 15% 65%