Does electricity on a temporary connection for building our new plant count in our Scope 2?

Yes, if the temporary connection is in your name, or you pay the bill and control the site. That electricity is purchased power you consume, so it is Scope 2 like any other bill. If your EPC contractor holds the connection and pays for it, it falls in your Scope 3 instead.

The test: whose connection, whose control

• Connection in your company's name, bill paid by you: Scope 2.
• Connection in your name, cost recharged to the contractor: still Scope 2 for you, because you buy and control the supply.
• Connection in the contractor's name and paid by the contractor within its lump-sum price: the contractor's Scope 2, and part of your Scope 3 Category 2, capital goods.

Capitalising the bill does not move it

Your accountant may add construction-period power to capital work in progress. That is a financial treatment. In your inventory the kWh stays in Scope 2 for the year it was consumed, not spread over the plant's life.

Diesel on site

DG sets running cranes, welding sets and site lighting before the connection arrives burn diesel. If you buy that diesel, it is Scope 1 at 2.68 kg CO2 per litre. If the contractor buys it, it is Scope 3 for you.

How to report it

1. Keep the temporary connection bills with the tariff category showing temporary supply.
2. Report the kWh in Scope 2 at the grid factor for the months consumed.
3. Note it in your methodology, because a plant that produces nothing yet will distort any intensity per tonne or per rupee of revenue.
4. When the permanent connection starts, no base year recalculation is needed; it is the same organisation growing.

Worked example: six months of construction power

• Temporary connection in your name: 18,000 kWh a month for 6 months
• Total: 18,000 x 6 = 1,08,000 kWh
• Scope 2: 1,08,000 x 0.710 = 76,680 kg CO2, about 76.7 t
• Site DG diesel you bought: 2,000 litres x 2.68 = 5,360 kg CO2 in Scope 1

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads a temporary connection bill like any other electricity bill, taking billing period, tariff category, sanctioned load and units, and applies 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh for location-based Scope 2. Site diesel invoices you hold are read at 2.68 kg CO2 per litre.

• Manufacturing Scope 2 emissions in India
• Diesel generator: Scope 1 or Scope 2?
• Sub-metered electricity in a rented unit

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (operational control, Scope 2), GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, Category 2 Capital Goods

Last reviewed 2026-10-19.