# How do I report Scope 2 when my factory buys solar power through a group captive or open access arrangement?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/group-captive-solar-scope-2

Report both ways. Location-based Scope 2 applies the grid factor to all the electricity you consume, including the wheeled solar. Market-based Scope 2 can treat the solar units adjusted on your bill as zero, if your contract gives you their renewable attributes and nobody sold RECs for them.

## Why location-based Scope 2 does not fall

Wheeled solar travels over the same grid as everyone else's power. The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance defines location-based Scope 2 as the average intensity of the grid where you consume, so it is total consumption times the grid factor, whatever you contracted. Only a direct private line from a plant to your factory, with no grid in between, changes that.

## When the solar can count as zero in market-based

The guidance sets quality criteria for contractual instruments. For a group captive or open access deal, check each one:

- The contract conveys the renewable attributes of the generation to you.
- Only you claim them: no RECs issued and sold for the same MWh, and the generator does not claim them elsewhere.
- The units are from the reporting period, or close to it.
- The plant is in the same market as your load. Plants on India's national grid are generally treated as one market.

## Which units to claim

- Claim the units adjusted at your meter on the discom bill, after transmission and wheeling losses, not the units the plant injected.
- Banked units are claimed when they are adjusted against your consumption; note their generation months, since the guidance asks for instruments as close as possible to the period of use.
- Lapsed banked units that were never adjusted against your load cannot be claimed.

## What to use for the remaining grid power

India does not publish a residual mix factor. Use the CEA grid average for the units still drawn from the grid, and say in your report that it is a proxy for the residual mix. This slightly understates market-based Scope 2, because the grid average still contains renewables that others have claimed.

## Evidence to keep

1. The power purchase or shareholder agreement clause on renewable attributes.
2. Monthly discom bills showing units adjusted.
3. The energy account from the state load despatch centre or the generator.
4. A declaration from the generator that no RECs were issued or sold for your units.

## Worked example: one year with group captive solar

- Total consumption: 1,000 MWh, of which 600 MWh adjusted as group captive solar
- Location-based: 1,000 MWh x 0.710 t CO2 per MWh = 710 t CO2
- Market-based: solar 600 MWh at zero; grid 400 MWh x 0.710 = 284 t CO2
- Report both: 710 t CO2 location-based and 284 t CO2 market-based, with the residual mix proxy disclosed

The 284 t figure holds only if the solar attributes are contractually yours and not sold as RECs.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reports location-based Scope 2 from the kWh on your electricity bills at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, and market-based Scope 2 when you supply the contract or certificate data. It does not verify that the attribute claim is valid.

- [Rooftop solar and net metering](https://senseible.earth/answers/rooftop-solar-net-metering-scope-2)
- [Green energy open access in India](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/green-energy-open-access-india)
- [Market vs location-based Scope 2](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/scope-2-market-based-vs-location-based-msme-guide)
- [Residual mix factor for India](https://senseible.earth/answers/residual-mix-factor-india-market-based-scope-2)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance](https://ghgprotocol.org/scope-2-guidance), [Electricity Rules, 2005, Rule 3, and Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy Through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022, Ministry of Power](https://powermin.gov.in), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-16. The GHG Protocol is revising its Scope 2 guidance and Rule 3 of the Electricity Rules was amended in 2026; check both before the next report.