Abstract
In August-September 2011, Social Impact, Inc. (SI) with sub-contractor Management Systems International (MSI), carried out an evaluation of the major components of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Prevention Program (GEP) for the clean energy and environment office (CLEEO) of USAID/India. The largest component of this long-running (April 1995-September 2011) program in India focused on reducing CO2 emissions from coal-fired thermal power plants. This GEP component was implemented in close partnership with the countrys biggest power producer, NTPC Ltd. Most elements of the program were implemented by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) through a Participating Agency Service Agreement (PASA). USAID contributed a total of $39.2 million to support GEP activities, of which $5.2 million was used for direct contracting by USAID with Louis Berger International, and $2 million for other, smaller contracts.The original objective of GEP was to reduce the volume of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per energy unit generated in the coal-based power sector, while increasing energy productivity and encouraging biomass fuel use in selected utilities and sugar industries. The initial phase of GEP (1995-2000) was composed of two components, Efficient Coal Conversion (ECC) and Alternative Bagasse Cogeneration (ABC), aimed respectively at increasing awareness, available information, and practical examples of the applicability of the state-of-the-art pollution prevention, efficient coal conversion and combustion for power generation, and industrial co-generation technologies in sugar mills. In 1999, new activities under the Climate Change Supplement (CCS) were added to the agreement with the government of India. The PASA was modified in 2003 to include several new areas (distributed generation, alternative transportation, hydrogen economy, and regulatory assistance).