How does the Tiruppur manual get 564,288 tonnes of carbon dioxide saved a year across the cluster, and what is it at today's grid factor?

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Tiruppur manual adds 62,580 tonnes from 68 gigawatt hours of grid power at 920 tonnes a gigawatt hour and 501,708 tonnes from 334,472 tonnes of wood at 1.50. Both lines rebuild exactly. Soft flow machines alone are 61% of the wood.

The grid line, rebuilt

The manual multiplies the units each measure can save by the number of units that could adopt it: variable frequency drives 450 x 4,896 = 2,203,200 kilowatt hours (kWh); feed pumps 650 x 6,266 = 4,072,900; soft flow machines 450 x 118,614 = 53,376,300; compressor pressure cuts 1,200 x 6,975 = 8,370,000. The sum is 68,022,400 kWh, 68.02 gigawatt hours.

At its factor of 920 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a gigawatt hour that is 62,580 tonnes, as printed. At 0.675 tonnes a megawatt hour, the Central Electricity Authority factor for financial year (FY) 2025-26, the same 68,022 megawatt hours is 45,915 tonnes. The manual's factor was 36% higher. It names no source or year, and we have not checked it against the factor for its own study year, so treat the grid line as dated.

The wood line, rebuilt

• Boilers 70 units x 172 tonnes = 12,040. Gasifiers 15 x 92 = 1,380. Flue gas heat recovery 550 x 23 = 12,650. Condensate recovery 70 x 21 = 1,470.
• Soft flow machines 450 x 450 = 202,500. Hot drained water 450 x 220 = 99,000. Solar hot water 200 x 21 = 4,200. Improved chulhas 56 x 22 = 1,232.
• Total 334,472 tonnes, as printed. At 1.50 tonnes of CO2 a tonne of non renewable wood: 501,708 tonnes.
• Grand total 62,580 + 501,708 = 564,288 tonnes, as printed.

What drives it

Soft flow machines are 202,500 of 334,472 tonnes, 60.5% of the wood. With hot drained water recovery, the two are 301,500 tonnes, 90% of the wood. Soft flow machines are the manual's slowest payback at 59 months. Hot drained water recovery pays back in 11, but the manual lists heat recovery systems among the high cost measures. The manual itself says about 70% of owners lack the financial strength for the high cost measures.

Using the number honestly

• It is a potential, not a result: units able to adopt x saving per unit, with no check on how many will.
• The 1.50 factor treats the wood as non renewable. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol says direct CO2 from the combustion of biomass shall not be included in scope 1 but reported separately, so whether wood is counted depends on your sourcing evidence and your buyer's rule.
• Do not add your own unit's saving to the cluster total or quote the cluster number as a unit's.

Today's grid line in one step

• Grid savings: 2,203,200 + 4,072,900 + 53,376,300 + 8,370,000 = 68,022,400 kWh
• Manual: 68,022.4 megawatt hours x 0.920 = 62,580 tonnes
• Today: 68,022.4 x 0.675 = 45,915 tonnes
• Wood: 334,472 x 1.50 = 501,708 tonnes; with the manual's grid line, 564,288

The measure and unit counts are the manual's. The 0.675 line is our own arithmetic with the FY 2025-26 factor; the wood factor stays the manual's.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so one unit's own wood and kWh are on file for its own number. Senseible reads one unit's own bills, which give that unit's own number.

• Tiruppur manual: payback table in months or years
• Tiruppur soft flow dyeing machine report
• Tiruppur knitwear cluster: buyer carbon data
• Tiruppur dyeing unit firewood boiler emissions
• Free calculators

Sources: BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Textile Cluster, Tirupur (prepared by Winrock International India, via SAMEEEKSHA), GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, Scope 1 definition

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. The cluster figures are from the manual's study year (around 2010 to 2011). Grid factors change each year; use the Central Electricity Authority factor for your reporting year.