What did a unit of heat cost Pune forging units from furnace oil, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity in the Energy and Resources Institute profile?
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) profile of Pune forging prints each fuel's tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) and its rupees (Rs). Dividing gives about Rs 45,000 a toe for LPG, 47,900 for natural gas, 70,100 for furnace oil and 79,500 for electricity, from its 2011-12 bill table. Oil and LPG were not costed at the profile's own price list.
A toe, in plain words
A toe is a yardstick, like a standard bucket. It lets you pour oil, gas and electricity into the same bucket and compare how much heat each carries. One toe is the heat in about a tonne of oil. When a profile says a fuel cost Rs 70,000 a toe, it means Rs 70,000 for a bucketful of heat.
The table, and the division
Table 5.3 of the profile covers 50 forging and 20 heat treatment units in 2011-12. It lists each fuel's toe and its cost in millions of rupees. The rows add up: 24,252 toe and Rs 1,658 million. Dividing each row gives the cost of a bucketful of heat. This is my arithmetic on the printed rows.
- LPG: 533 toe, Rs 24 million, about Rs 45,000 a toe. 2.2% of the energy, 1.4% of the money.
- Natural gas: 1,294 toe, Rs 62 million, about Rs 47,900 a toe. 5.3% of the energy, 3.7% of the money.
- Light diesel oil: 3,044 toe, Rs 158 million, about Rs 51,900 a toe.
- High speed diesel: 592 toe, Rs 33 million, about Rs 55,700 a toe.
- Furnace oil: 11,995 toe, Rs 841 million, about Rs 70,100 a toe. 49.5% of the energy, 50.7% of the money.
- Electricity: 6,794 toe, Rs 540 million, about Rs 79,500 a toe. 28.0% of the energy, 32.6% of the money.
- All fuels: Rs 1,658 million / 24,252 toe = about Rs 68,400 a toe.
What the price list says, and where it differs
- The profile's price list gives furnace oil at Rs 44 to 52 a litre, natural gas Rs 47.53 a standard cubic metre and LPG Rs 54.35 a kilogram.
- Furnace oil: at the list price a toe of oil costs about Rs 47,000 to 55,600, so the table's Rs 70,100 sits about 26% to 49% above the list. Rs 841 million over 11,995 toe works out to about Rs 66 to 69 a litre, not Rs 44 to 52. My reading is that the table was not costed at the list price; the profile does not say why.
- LPG: at Rs 54.35 a kilogram and 11,300 kilocalories a kilogram, a toe costs about Rs 48,100. The table's Rs 45,000 is about 6% below that.
- Electricity: 6,794 toe is about 79.0 million kilowatt hours (kWh), at the profile's 860 kilocalories a kWh. Rs 540 million over 79.0 million kWh is about Rs 6.84 a kWh. The profile's energy charges run from Rs 3.90 to Rs 5.90 a kWh. The gap is most likely the demand or fixed charge, which the profile lists at Rs 100 to Rs 150 per kilovolt-ampere (kVA) a month, plus a time-of-day charge of up to Rs 1.10 a kWh. That is my reading; the profile does not say.
- Natural gas: the profile gives its heat value as 8,000 to 9,480 kilocalories a cubic metre. At the list price a toe of gas costs about Rs 50,100 at 9,480 and Rs 59,400 at 8,000. The table's Rs 47,900 is below both, so the table was not costed at the list prices here either.
Why dearest per toe is not dearest per tonne
The Rajkot profile says an oil furnace uses about 0.15 toe to heat a tonne and an induction heater about 0.04 toe, which it puts at 450 kWh. The Chennai profile says 400 kWh. Electricity costs more per toe, but you need far fewer toes. Always compare the cost for a tonne of forgings, not the cost of a toe.
Example: one tonne of billets, old prices
- Oil furnace: 0.15 toe x Rs 70,100 = Rs 10,515 a tonne (high: at the list price the same sum gives about Rs 7,000 to 8,300)
- Induction heater: 450 kWh x Rs 6.84 = Rs 3,078 a tonne
- Mixing two profiles, so treat the gap as a direction, not a quote
- Today's gap depends on your oil price and your tariff: put your own invoices in place of both lines
Prices are TERI's 2011-12 cluster averages. The 0.15 toe and 450 kWh a tonne come from the Rajkot profile.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. You do the rupees-per-toe division yourself. It does not set fuel prices.
- Pune forging cluster fuel mix and CO2
- Induction heater against an oil forging furnace
- Furnace oil per tonne: Pune, Rajkot, Chennai
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Sources: TERI, Cluster profile report: Pune forging cluster (SAMEEEKSHA, 2012), TERI, Energy profile: Rajkot forging industries (SAMEEEKSHA), TERI, Energy profile: Chennai forging industry cluster (SAMEEEKSHA)
Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Prices are the 2011-12 cluster averages printed in the profile. The oil and LPG rows do not match the profile's own price list, and I could not find why. Fuel and power prices have moved a great deal since. Rebuild the table from your own last twelve months of invoices.