Why do the Bureau of Energy Efficiency Ganjam individual drive reports for 1, 1.5 and 2 tonne an hour rice mills use the same motors?

Three Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Ganjam reports replace a rice mill's common shaft with separate motors for rupees (Rs) 1.50, 1.65 and 1.80 lakh. The 1.0 tonne an hour (TPH) case has its own page; the 1.5 and 2.0 TPH reports save 15,120 and 17,369 kilowatt hours (kWh). The motor list is identical in all three.

The three reports side by side

• 1.0 TPH: Rs 1.50 lakh, payback 2.63 years. The live page on this site works through that first case, so its savings and hours are not repeated here.
• 1.5 TPH: Rs 1.65 lakh, 15,120 kWh, Rs 0.64 lakh, 2.58 years. 10 hours x 320 days.
• 2.0 TPH: Rs 1.80 lakh, 17,369 kWh, Rs 0.73 lakh, 2.47 years. 12 hours x 315 days.
• All three price power at Rs 4.20 a kWh, say the cluster has about 250 mills and that about half run a common drive, and claim transmission loss falls by up to 30%.

The size label is not in the arithmetic

Annexure 1 of each report lists the same new motors: 3 elevator motors and 2 chaluni motors drawing 0.24 kilowatts (kW) each, a 7.5 horse power (HP) rubber sheller at 2.4 kW, two 10 HP cone motors at 3.3 kW each and a 2 HP separator at 0.7 kW. That adds to 10.9 kW in every report, and the motors are Rs 1.00 lakh in every report, with cabling and modifications Rs 0.50 lakh.

What changes is time. 10.9 kW x 2,940 hours, x 3,200 and x 3,780 give the three printed savings. Contingency is nil, Rs 0.15 and Rs 0.30 lakh, which is the whole difference in project cost. Per working hour the saving is 4.64, 4.73 and 4.60 kW, close to one figure.

My reading: each saving is about 30% of its baseline (the 1.5 TPH 15,120 of 50,000 is 30.2%, the 2.0 TPH 17,369 of 58,571 is 29.7%), so the reports appear to apply a 30% loss to the baseline; they do not size the mill by tonnes. The source text words that loss two ways: 'reduce transmission loss up to 30%' and 'the common drive consumes about 30% more power than individual drives', which is a cut of about 23% (1 minus 1 / 1.3, my arithmetic).

Baselines that do not match the measured motor

• Annexure 1 gives the measured main motor power as 12.43 kW for the 1.0 TPH mill, 11.40 kW for 1.5 TPH and 20.3 kW for 2.0 TPH, at 55, 31 and 68% loading.
• My reading: dividing each baseline by its measured main motor power gives 3,675, 4,386 and 2,885 hours. The new motors are given 2,940, 3,200 and 3,780. So the first two baselines run longer than the new system, and the 2.0 TPH baseline runs shorter. The 1.0 TPH page on this site works through that first case.
• Carbon dioxide (CO2): the 1.0 TPH summary prints 14 tonnes a year while its body prints 11. The 1.5 and 2.0 TPH reports print 15 and 17 tonnes. At the grid factor of 0.675 kilograms (kg) CO2 a kWh for financial year (FY) 2025-26, the three savings are about 9.2, 10.2 and 11.7 tonnes.

Before you order

• Pick by your own hours and your own meter reading, not by the TPH on the file. The saving is roughly 4.6 to 4.7 kW for every hour the mill runs (my arithmetic on the printed figures).
• Read your main motor on a normal shift. The reports' measured loading ranges from 31 to 68%.
• Ask the supplier what the Rs 1.00 lakh buys: all three reports price the same motor set regardless of mill size.

The 1.5 TPH report line by line

• New motors: 3 x 0.24 + 2 x 0.24 + 2.4 + 2 x 3.3 + 0.7 = 10.9 kW
• 10.9 kW x 10 hours x 320 days = 34,880 kWh. Present 50,000 kWh. Saving 15,120 kWh, 30.2%
• 15,120 x Rs 4.20 = Rs 63,504, printed as Rs 0.64 lakh. Rs 1.65 lakh / 0.64 = 2.58 years
• My reading: the same 10.9 kW at the 1.0 TPH report's 2,940 hours gives 32,046 kWh, exactly the 1.0 TPH figure

Figures are the reports' own at the report year's prices; the last line is an example of my own arithmetic.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so your monthly units are on file next to a report's yearly kWh. A bill covers the whole mill, so the shaft motor's own draw still needs a meter. The green loan check shows what a lender asks for.

• Green loan readiness check
• Common shaft to individual drive, 1 tph mill
• Ganjam paddy separator in three sizes
• Ganjam rice mills electricity saving

Sources: BEE, Detailed project report: individual drive system 1.0 TPH, Ganjam rice mill cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), BEE, Detailed project report: individual drive system 1.5 TPH, Ganjam rice mill cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), BEE, Detailed project report: individual drive system 2.0 TPH, Ganjam rice mill cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), Central Electricity Authority (CEA), CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Report figures are from BEE's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) programme project reports of 2010, at a Rs 4.20 a kWh tariff. Check today's tariff, a current quote and your own motor readings before you rely on the payback.