What is the energy use and CO2 of the Shivamogga foundry cluster?
TERI's 2015 profile puts the 45 foundries and associated units at 5,450 toe a year: 58.3 million kWh of grid power and 350 t of LPG, for about 50,000 t of castings. At today's grid factor that is about 40,400 t CO2, roughly 0.81 t per tonne of castings (estimate).
An all induction cluster
No foundry in Shivamogga melts in a cupola. All 23 iron and 15 steel foundries, plus one non-ferrous unit, melt in medium frequency induction furnaces, most of them SCR controlled with 300 kg, 500 kg or 1 t crucibles. Together they draw about 30 MVA from MESCOM on 11 kV HT connections, make roughly equal tonnages of iron and steel castings, and send about 12.5% of their Rs 650 crore turnover abroad, to 26 countries.
Why your footprint is your power bill
- Electricity is 92% of the cluster's energy; melting alone is 75 to 80% of a unit's use.
- LPG, 350 t a year, heats cores and ladles and cuts metal; steel foundries use it most.
- Diesel for gensets during outages is marginal.
- So the CO2 per tonne moves almost one for one with kWh per tonne of good castings.
Where TERI saw the kWh leak
- Old furnaces at 750 kWh or more per tonne melted; IGBT furnaces reach about 550, with payback under a year.
- No furnace lid: about 6% of input lost to radiation and convection.
- Rejections near 10% that process control can bring under 5%, so less metal is melted twice.
- Sand left on runners and risers, 4 to 5% of their weight, which turns to slag in the next melt.
- Compressors set at 7.5 bar unload; each bar lower saves 5 to 6%.
What a buyer will see
Pumps, valves and earth moving parts are machinery goods, outside CBAM's list, but their makers ask suppliers for CO2 per tonne of castings for their own Scope 3. Quote it per tonne of good castings dispatched, with the grid factor and year stated, so a figure from TERI's 0.98 kg per kWh era is not mixed with today's 0.675.
Shivamogga cluster, CO2 a year at FY 2025-26 factors (estimate)
- Electricity: 58.3 million kWh x 0.675 kg = 39,353 t
- LPG: 350 t x 2.98 = 1,043 t
- Total: about 40,396 t, against 58,179 t in TERI's 2015 table at an older grid factor
- Per tonne of castings: 40,396 / 50,000 = about 0.81 t CO2
Unit counts, output and energy from TERI's cluster profile of Shimoga foundry industries (2016, 2015 data). CEA FY 2025-26 grid factor; LPG 2.98 kg CO2 per kg.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads MESCOM bills and LPG invoices into monthly CO2 at the current CEA factor in minutes, so the per tonne figure you send a buyer is built from your own bills.
Sources: TERI, Cluster profile: Shimoga foundry industries (SAMEEEKSHA), CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0
Last reviewed 2026-11-01.