# Where does the electricity go in a machining unit making tractor and auto parts?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/light-engineering-unit-electricity-split-motors

Mostly into motors. TERI's profile of Mohali, Panchkula and Chandigarh parts makers puts induction motors at 85% of a typical unit's electricity, lighting 7%, wiring and capacitor losses 5% and air compressors 3%. Its 48 audits found up to 20% to save, the largest share in motors.

## The split in a typical parts unit

- Induction motors on lathes, milling, drilling, shaping and grinding machines: 85%.
- Lighting: 7%.
- Distribution and capacitor losses: 5%. The audits found losses as high as 6% where wiring was poor.
- Air compressors: 3%.
- Diesel gensets fill in for cuts; in summer many Mohali and Panchkula units lost grid power two days a week.

## Where the audits found the savings

Across the cluster's tractor, auto and railway parts makers, the 48 audits added up to 16.35 GWh a year to save, about 10% of the 159.12 million kWh these units use. Set against the split, the small loads give back the most for their size: compressor leaks alone are worth about 44% of what compressors use, and lighting changes about 30% of lighting. Motors save only around 5% of their share, yet that is still the biggest block in kWh.

## What the auditors kept seeing

- Motors running lightly loaded, many old and rewound: switch consistently underloaded motors to star, resize, or move to IE3 with VFDs.
- Capacitor banks past their life or wrongly sized, so the power factor stays low even with an APFC panel.
- 52 W and 46 W tube lights where 30 W ones do the job, and 150 W sodium lamps where 45 W LEDs do.
- Worn V belts: synchronous belts save up to 8% on that drive.
- Small habits, such as cutting six rods at a time on a hacksaw instead of four.

## When an OEM asks for your figure

Your Scope 2 is your bills times the grid factor; your diesel is Scope 1. Report them by month with the parts made, and say whether the bought steel is included. For a machining unit, the steel you buy can outweigh the electricity, so an OEM asking for a part footprint will want both lines.

## The cluster's tractor, auto and railway parts makers, CO2 a year (estimate)

- Electricity: 159.12 million kWh x 0.675 kg = 107,406 t
- Of which motors 85%: 135.25 million kWh = 91,295 t; lighting 11.14 million kWh = 7,518 t
- Diesel for gensets: 1.9 million L x 2.645 kg = 5,026 t
- Audit savings if all done: 16.35 million kWh x 0.675 = 11,036 t a year less

Energy, split and savings from TERI's cluster profile of the Mohali-Panchkula-Chandigarh light engineering cluster under the SIDBI BDS project. Grid factor CEA FY 2025-26; diesel 2.645 kg CO2 per litre.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your electricity bills and diesel invoices into monthly Scope 1 and 2 and packs them as supplier evidence an OEM can trace to each bill.

- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [Mohali tractor parts cluster footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/mohali-tractor-parts-cluster-carbon)
- [Compressed air leak cost and CO2](https://senseible.earth/answers/compressed-air-leak-cost-and-emissions)
- [Rewind or replace a failed motor](https://senseible.earth/answers/rewind-or-replace-failed-motor-co2)

Sources: [TERI, Cluster profile: Mohali-Panchkula-Chandigarh light engineering cluster (SAMEEEKSHA)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/MPC_light_engineering_cluster.pdf), [CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-11-01.