# In the Punjab dairy profile of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), does the 435 million kilowatt hours (kWh) include power from captive diesel generators?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/punjab-dairy-profile-435-million-kwh-captive-share

The profile does not say, but its printed total of 0.54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) leans towards the smaller grid share. Its 29,942 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) is 80% of what 435 million kWh converts to, and captive plants meet about 20% of load. My reading: about 87 million kWh may come from diesel.

## What the profile prints

- Electricity 435 million kWh, 29,942 toe, 27% of the total.
- Furnace oil 62.56 million litres, 53,180 toe, 47%. High speed diesel (HSD) 29 million litres, 29,033 toe, 26%. Total 112,155 toe.
- Text: most dairies have captive power plants, which meet about 20% (average) of the industry's electrical load, because rural supply is below 18 hours a day.
- Text: refrigeration is about 64% of a dairy unit's electrical energy.

## The conversion check

A kWh is 3.6 megajoules, and a toe is 41.868 gigajoules, or 41,868 megajoules. So 435 million kWh is 435,000,000 x 3.6 / 41,868 = 37,403 toe. The profile prints 29,942, which is 80.05% of that. Taking 80% of the kWh, 348 million, gives 348,000,000 x 3.6 / 41,868 = 29,923 toe, within 0.07% of the printed figure.

My reading, not stated in the profile: the kWh row shows total electricity used, about 87 million kWh of it from captive diesel generators, while the toe row counts only the 348 million kWh from the grid, the generator share being already in the diesel row. Another reading is that the toe row is simply low. The profile does not settle it.

## The profile's own CO2 total as a cross-check

The profile prints a total of 0.54 million tonnes of CO2 and an emission intensity of 0.06 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of product. Furnace oil at 62.56 million litres x 2.97 kg is 185,803 tonnes and diesel at 29 million litres x 2.645 kg is 76,705 tonnes, together 262,508. Power at 0.82 kg per kWh, the factor TERI's other profiles imply, gives 348 million x 0.82 = 285,360 tonnes, a total of about 548,000, on the grid-only reading. All 435 million kWh gives 356,700 tonnes and a total of about 619,000. The printed 0.54 million sits close to the first and well below the second, so it leans towards the generator reading.

This is a hedge, not proof: the profile does not state the grid factor for its 2008-09 data, and other factors would move both totals.

## Why it matters for a carbon figure

Multiplying all 435 million kWh by the grid factor would count the generator output as grid power as well as counting its diesel. On 0.675 kg per kWh that is a difference of 58,725 tonnes of CO2 a year (87 million x 0.675), or 20% of the electricity line. Our page on Punjab dairy energy applies the grid factor to the full 435 million kWh as TERI prints it; if the generator reading is right, that line is high by this much. The cross-check above is why we lean that way.

## For your own plant

1. Take grid kWh from the electricity bills, and generator kWh from the generator's own meter if it has one.
2. Count generator diesel once, from litres bought, not again through a kWh figure.
3. Keep boiler furnace oil and generator diesel on separate lines.

## The two readings, side by side

- Reading A, all grid: 435,000,000 x 0.675 = 293,625,000 kg = 293,625 t CO2
- Reading B, 80% grid: 348,000,000 x 0.675 = 234,900 t CO2
- Difference: 293,625 less 234,900 = 58,725 t, which is 87,000,000 x 0.675
- Diesel, 29 million litres x 2.645 kg = 76,705 t CO2, the same in both

TERI's brief for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), based on its 2008-09 milk volumes; grid factor 0.675 is the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) value for financial year (FY) 2025-26, applied here only to show the size of the gap. Reading B is an inference from the 20% figure.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so a year of power and diesel bills gives you your own totals to set beside these. It does not measure boilers or read a profile report, and it is not a third-party verifier.

- [Punjab dairy energy and CO2 per tonne of milk](https://senseible.earth/answers/punjab-dairy-cluster-energy-co2-per-tonne-milk)
- [Diesel generator emissions per kWh](https://senseible.earth/answers/dg-set-emissions-per-kwh-vs-grid)
- [Free calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)

Sources: [TERI for UNIDO, Cluster profile: Punjab dairy industries (SAMEEEKSHA)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/PunjabDairyClusterBrief.pdf), [CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0 (FY 2025-26 grid factor)](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. The profile does not say what its kWh row contains; the captive reading is an inference. Check the profile and your own meters. The 0.82 used in the cross-check is the factor TERI's other profiles imply; the profile states none for 2008-09.