In an integrated steel works, which unit's electricity counts under CBAM?
Only the sinter or pellet plant's. Steel goods count direct emissions only, but sintered ore, CN 2601 12 00, is not listed in Annex II, so its electricity counts and travels into every product made from it. Blast furnace, converter and rolling mill power stay out of the figure.
Why sinter is the exception
Under Article 7(1) and Annex II of the CBAM Regulation, iron and steel goods take direct emissions only. Agglomerated ore under CN 2601 12 00 is not in Annex II, so its indirect emissions count. When sinter or pellets are a precursor, those indirect emissions stay inside the embedded emissions of the pig iron, crude steel and rolled products made from them.
Meter the sinter plant on its own
Even if you report the whole works as one joint process, the guidance says the electricity for the sinter plant has to be singled out, because it is the only unit whose power counts. A sub-meter on the sinter plant feeders, read for the whole year, is the evidence a verifier will ask for.
Which emission factor to use
- Grid only: the default factor for India from the Commission's default values.
- Captive power plus grid: a weighted factor across both sources.
- Sinter fed only from your waste gas power plant: you may use that plant's factor, but only with evidence to the verifier that the sinter plant draws from it alone (Article 9 of the Methodology Act).
Do not forget the waste gas deduction
If blast furnace gas makes your captive power, its CO2 is already in direct emissions. The guidance deducts the share used for power from direct emissions, so the same carbon is not counted twice.
The Commission's example works (located in South Korea)
- Sinter produced: 5,600,000 t a year
- Sinter plant electricity: 241,111 MWh
- Weighted factor: 75% own waste gas power at 0.576 + 25% grid at 0.475 = 0.551 t CO2 per MWh
- Indirect emissions of sinter: 132,797 t CO2, or 0.0237 t per tonne of sinter
- Steel products made: 4,800,000 t, so 132,797 / 4,800,000 = 0.028 t indirect per tonne
- Steel product figure: 1.539 direct + 0.028 indirect = 1.567 t CO2 per tonne
Guidance figures. An Indian works uses India's default grid factor and its own captive data.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads coal, coke, gas and power invoices and meter records into dated records, so sinter plant power can be kept apart from the rest of the works. We build it from your records, check every figure in-house, and an accredited verifier we partner with signs it off. Have your own verifier? Send it to them.
Sources: European Commission, Guidance No. 5d, sector-specific guidance on iron and steel (14 August 2026), European Commission, CBAM Questions and Answers (last updated 15 October 2026)
Last reviewed 2026-11-01.