How much power does the Hooghly cold storage cluster use?
Roughly 76,000 t CO2 a year: 110.9 million kWh and 0.5 million litres of diesel across some 150 potato cold stores in 2022-23. Size matters most. A store under 10,000 t uses about 89 kWh per tonne of capacity; one above 20,000 t uses 46.
The stores
- 62 stores below 10,000 t (average 6,237 t), 70 at 10,000 to 20,000 t (average 13,704 t), 18 above 20,000 t (average 23,522 t).
- Table potatoes are held at 2 to 4 C for up to 6 to 8 months; potatoes for processing at 10 to 12 C.
- Chambers rise 4 to 5 floors, 50 to 60 feet.
- DG sets, and in some stores diesel engines on the compressors, cover power cuts.
Where the units go
- Compressors 70%, pumps 13%, fans 12%, lights 5%.
- Most systems are reciprocating ammonia compressors, run flat out with manual control, on rewound standard motors.
- Ammonia has no global warming potential, so top-ups add nothing; the footprint is power and diesel.
Fixes with a payback
- Re-pipe stores built before 2005 if the pressure drop from evaporator to condenser is over 0.2 bar: each 0.1 bar costs about 7% more power.
- Re-insulate pipes and valves that frost: 5 to 8% less power, payback within a year.
- Controls and VFDs on evaporator fans: about Rs 10 to 12 lakh for a 5,000 t store, payback 18 to 24 months.
- Strip or air curtains on chamber doors; none of the surveyed stores had them.
CO2 per tonne of capacity, by size (estimate)
- Below 10,000 t: 554,182 kWh x 0.675 = 374 t + 4,700 L diesel x 2.645 = 12 t; 386 t / 6,237 t = 62 kg per tonne
- 10,000 to 20,000 t: 548 t + 6 t = 554 t / 13,704 t = 40 kg per tonne
- Above 20,000 t: 738 t + 8 t = 746 t / 23,522 t = 32 kg per tonne
- Cluster: 110.9 million kWh = 74,860 t; 0.5 million L diesel = 1,320 t; about 76,200 t
Power, diesel and capacity from TERI's 2022-23 energy profile of the cluster; per tonne of rated capacity, not tonnes actually stored.
What Senseible does here
Enter a season's kWh and diesel in the calculators for CO2 per tonne stored; Senseible can read the WBSEDCL bills and diesel slips into monthly records.
Sources: TERI, Energy profile: Hooghly cold storage cluster (2022-23), SAMEEEKSHA, Hooghly cold storage cluster summary, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors), CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector (grid factor 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26)
Last reviewed 2026-10-31.