Agra has 50 cupola and 30 induction foundries: what does the cluster emit, and where is the saving?

TERI put Agra's 80 working foundries at 10,310 toe and 77,743 t CO2 in 2017-18, about 90% of it from 85 million kWh of electricity. The 30 induction units make 65% of the castings, so the biggest saving sits in their old SCR furnaces: about 680 kWh a tonne, against 540 for IGBT.

The cluster in TERI's 2017-18 study

• Over 100 foundries once, about 80 working now: 40 micro, 23 small, 15 medium and 2 large.
• About 360 t of castings a day, roughly 0.11 million t a year, for DG sets, automotive, air compressors and general engineering.
• 50 cupola foundries make about 35% of the output; 30 induction foundries make the other 65%.
• Most cupolas here burn piped natural gas, 60 to 70 SCM per tonne of molten metal, not coke. The small ones melt once or twice a week.

Where the CO2 comes from

• Electricity, 85 million kWh: 69,700 t CO2 on TERI's factor.
• Natural gas, 2.229 million SCM: 3,902 t.
• Graphite for the cupola bed, 1,422 t: 4,141 t.
• Melting takes about 90% of a cupola unit's energy and 75 to 80% of an induction unit's.

Why the induction shops hold the saving

About 95% of the 30 induction furnaces are SCR type, roughly a decade old, run without standard operating procedures at around 680 kWh per tonne of metal. An IGBT furnace brings that to about 540, a 15 to 25% cut, and TERI's costing showed a Rs 40 lakh furnace paying back in about 1.1 years at 250 t a month. A lid on the open crucible, which loses 6 to 8% of the energy as radiation, saves up to 3% more and paid back in about 7 months.

Before you take the upgrade to a lender

• Twelve months of power bills and your monthly melt in tonnes, so kWh per tonne is your own figure, not TERI's average.
• The IGBT supplier's quotation with the kWh per tonne it commits to.
• A note of whether the old furnace will be scrapped or kept as standby, because a lender will ask.

Worked example: one 250 t a month induction shop moves to IGBT

• Saving: 680 minus 540 = 140 kWh per tonne of metal
• Per year: 140 x 250 x 12 = 420,000 kWh
• CO2 at the FY 2025-26 grid factor: 420,000 x 0.675 = about 284 t a year
• If all 30 induction units switched, on their 70,000 t of castings: 140 x 70,000 = 9.8 million kWh, about 6,615 t CO2

TERI's furnace figures with Senseible's grid factor of 0.675 kg per kWh; TERI's own CO2 figures used an older, higher factor. Metal melted exceeds castings shipped, so the cluster line is a low estimate.

What Senseible does here

Upload a year of power bills and gas invoices and Senseible turns them into dated monthly records; divide by the tonnes in your melting log for your own kWh per tonne. Its green loan check then shows what evidence a lender will want before funding an IGBT furnace.

• Check your green loan readiness
• Induction furnace upgrade loans
• Induction kWh per tonne benchmark
• Cupola vs induction emissions

Sources: TERI, Energy profile: Agra foundry cluster (SAMEEEKSHA, 2018; data 2017-18)

Last reviewed 2026-10-30. TERI data is from 2017-18. Recheck if a newer Agra foundry profile is published.