Improving the Efficacy and Efficiency of the Environmental Management System in the Romanian Powerplants on Coal – the Condition of the Environmental Performance

After a decade-long evolution, the use of coal for energy production is growing again. Carbon is still an important source of energy in Europe, covering about one-fourth of electricity production. There are plans to open around 50 new coal-fired power plants. But the continued use of coal has a price, we pay all, mainly with our health can be affected by excessive environmental pollution Today more and more emphasis on the concept of „green economy” that should be reflected in improving people’s lives through effective management of environmental issues and reducing environmental risks Thus, through the present paper we aim to highlight those aspects that would allow the improvement of the environmental performance of coal-fired power plants in Romania by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Environmental Management System (EMS) as a component of the Integrated Management System along with the Quality, Health and Safety Management System . We start from the premise that the development and implementation of an effective and efficient environmental management system (EMS) becomes a priority for all companies in the field , especially since their activities based on coal burning , are considered among the most polluting.


Introduction
Every industrial activity has an effect on the environment. More and more companies, especially industrial ones, have become and become aware that they need to pay more attention to the management of their environmental impact. To that end, the development and implementation of an effective and efficient EMS system becomes a priority. Industrial producers have to meet the demands and challenges of the European Union. We mention here the initiative of the European Commission that launched a scheme ( EMASeco-management and audit scheme ) to which they can voluntarily join organizations, in accordance with European Regulation 1836/93, which was subsequently replaced by Council Regulation 761/2001, 1221/2009 last amendment being 1505/2017. So EMAS targets a set of environmental policy tools that allow companies to pursue both environmental objectives and competition objectives in a synergistic way .Implementation of a system environmental management can based on one of EMAS standards and / or ISO 14001 that allow organizations of any size or type to control the impact of their activities, products and services on the environment. The accession of industrial organizations to an environmental management and audit system such as EMAS is voluntary but once a what an enterprise decides to do join EMAS, then it have to fully comply with the provisions of the aforementioned regulation. Improving environmental performance is a goal set by EMAS. If the ISO 14001 : 2004 standard not established anything about the environmental performance, only an absolute dedication and involvement in the field of environmental protection, compliance with the law and the principle of continuous improvement , the new ISO 14001: 2015 standard (which replaces the old standard at the end of 2018) requires performance assessment and we recommend increasing focus on managing environmental performance improvements. The environmental management system (EMS) has two areas of focus: environmental compliance and environmental sustainability.

The place of coal-fired power stations is in Romania's energy system
Coal remains a major energy pawn while being an important source of energy security even if the share of coal in the energy mix is to be diminished. Reality but emphasizes the importance of coal-based electricity. It turns out so that coal-fired power stations remain to play an important role in the production and delivery of energy and electricity in the National Energy System (NES), regardless of atmospheric conditions -frost, increased drought, when the wind does not blow to produce wind energy or the sun is not enough for normal photovoltaic power production. During 2017, thermo capacities produced 41% of the national electricity, accounting for 48.6% of the total installed power. By comparison, analyzing the weights of the components of the net production mix for 2017, we can see that the largest share (41%) is represented by the thermo component followed by the hydro component (25%) and the energy produced from renewable and nuclear sources have a weight of approximately 18% and 16%, respectively.
In Romania the production of electricity in the thermoelectric power plants is realized in:  The problem that arises is related to the impact of the activities of these coal-fired power plants on the environment. It is not to be neglected that industrial organizations we refer face serious problems for alignment with European emission standards for reducing air pollution. It is important to emphasize that the reduction of pollutant emissions to the air at the legal level does not mean that coal-fired power plants no longer have an impact on health and the environment. Romania's coal-fired power plants are big polluters with dust, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. In addition to coal-fired power plants harmul emissions, is the impact of coal extraction, in particular for lignite, which includes grazing large areas of forests, the destruction of some agricultural landfills and the production of large quantities of dust, as well as the pollution of groundwater. Compliance with emission standards can not be an object of negotiation, so it is necessary to treat these problems is with most seriousness, hence mandatory implementation of management systems such as the environment, quality and occupational health within these enterprises .
By But besides investment necessary measures that have to be taken to ensure compliance by all combustion installations of coal plants of the applicable emission limit values such as desulphurisation of the flue gases rehabilitation low NOx burners, rehabilitation electrostatic and the case Electrocentrale Deva in the Energy Complex Hunedoara, or installation and commissioning of a system to reduce noncatalitic selective nitrogen oxides from the flue gases (SNCR) in plants in the structure of the Oltenia Energy Complex, the focus should be on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Environmental Management System (EMS) implemented within these organizations.

Environmental performance -a criterion for the efficiency and effectiveness of the environmental management system
In recent years, the literature has been abundant in studies describing the elaboration, development, implementation and continuous improvement of the integrated systems of SIM quality management, environment, occupational health and safety management, social responsibility, etc., as well as their individual study. In the case of environmental management, the studies focused on the conditions of enterprises that decided to implement the environmental management system based on the ISI 14001 standard, its certification and, last but not least, its economic impact The relationship between the implementation of the environmental management system and the environmental performance has in turn prompted interest in recent years. Several international studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between ISO 14001 certification and improving environmental performance in countries such as Canada, France, Germany , Hungary, Japan, Norway, USA (Barla, 2007 (Ziegler and Rennings, 2004) , while other studies offer inconclusive results. Furthermore, a research study by Hertin et.al, 2003, even in the field of electricity, concluded that environmental performance is not the main reason for the E MS implementation, which is why the poor relationship between EMS and performance becomes a plausible consequence, because there is no evidence to suggest that EMS implementation has a consistent and significant positive impact on environmental performance. But more recent studies, such as the (Arab, et al., 2017) highlighted the main success factors for the implementation of environmental management systems, with direct effect in improving environmental performance, including commitment and support of the manager, coordination and integration, education, effective participation and management of human resources, financial and non-financial resources and cost analysis -benefits, environmental objectives and policies and documentation control.
It is clear that starting from the literature on this topic, a set of specific indicators is set and monitored in practice. Crucially, however, is the selection of the most representative of them, so that the correlations between the groups of factors or the composite variables determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the EMS.

Results and discussion
With regard to the above-mentioned organizations, both representative industrial companies in the field of the coalbased electricity production have implemented and maintain an Integrated Management System in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 9001: 2008, ISO 14001: 2004, OHSAS 18001: 2007 through which it promotes a policy oriented towards the permanent satisfaction of the requirements of the clients and stakeholders towards the offered products and services, of reducing the negative impacts of its activities on the environment and of reducing the risks to the safety and health of the employees, visitors, subcontractors by conducting safe activities.
However, the immediate concern is to recertify the management systems according to the new standards (ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 14001: 2015, the old ones lose their validity at the end of 2018, and ISO 45001: 2018,replaces OHSAS 18001 health and safety standard).
The implementation of the EMS aims at demonstrating the organization's environmental performance, taking measures to control the impact of its activities / processes on the environment.
Identifying and analyzing best practice in the process of developing and implementing the EMS, based on the application of ISO 14001, it is necessary to analyze the factors that may determine the effectiveness and efficiency of EMS in thermal power plants using coal, the enhancement of the peculiarities of these firms in the energy field.
Improving environmental management and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of EMS, based on ISO 14001, should take into account: • A strengthening of the specific values of the organizational culture that to stimulate compliance with environmental requirements, respectively environmental legislation and regulations; • Ensuring a strong and informed leadership in environmental management; • Promoting integrated prevention strategies for environmentally competitive, economically and financially-friendly (profitability) ecological production where environmental pollution control systems (which are expensive) are replaced by focused measures to prevent pollution • Obtaining information on the potential for enhancing environmental performance in order to apply organizational strategies to facilitate the assessment and valorisation of their potential to adopt and apply eco-friendly technologies and techniques, and to capitalize on the opportunities for eco-growth-efficacy.

Conclusion
An Environmental Management System or EMS can be a powerful tool to help businesses improve their environmental performance.
Many organizations implement an EMS that meets the requirements of ISO14001 certification, not necessarily to become a better environmental corporate citizen. However, they soon discover that implementing a robust EMS is beneficial and adds value to their business.
In the case of energy organizations studied, it is necessary that the investment measures necessary to maintain the safety of the national energy system to be correlated with the environmental compliance measures. We recommend developing a model of analysis that highlights the relationship between the efficiency and effectiveness of EMS and environmental management, motivational factors, market and regulatory and benefits in its implementation and development in power plant coal as electricity generation units from Romania, as well as the degree of integration of SME along with the leased systems (quality, health and occupational security, social responsibility). There are several reasons for integrating management, quality, occupational health and safety (OH & S) together with environmental management (Sanz-Calcedo, JG et al., 2015), such as: Reducing duplication of activities and therefore costs Balance conflicting objectives, eg between occupational health and the environment, Eliminate conflicting responsibilities and relationships , Harmonize and optimize practices, Create consistency, Improve communication, Facilitate training and development, Integrating management systems facilitates focus on the most important aspects of a company, Separate systems tend to put focus on every area instead of the common area.