# What is the Rajkot machine tool cluster's energy use, and what should a unit record?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/rajkot-machine-tool-makers-carbon-footprint

Little of a Rajkot machine's footprint is on the maker's own meter. A typical lathe or press maker uses about 20,000 kWh a year; the cluster's 400 or so units used 2,374 toe in 2015-16, mostly 20.5 million kWh of grid power. Most of the footprint sits in the castings and bought parts.

## What the cluster runs on

- Electricity: 20.5 million kWh a year, 1,760 of the cluster's 2,374 toe.
- Natural gas: 712,500 scm a year, 606 toe.
- Diesel: 8,845 litres a year for generators, because outages are rare.
- About 200 units make metal cutting machines, 120 metal forming machines and 80 accessories such as chucks and lead screws.
- Energy is only 1 to 2% of the cost of a finished machine.

## A typical unit's own figure

The cluster profile puts a typical metal cutting unit at 22,686 kWh and 50 litres of diesel a year, a metal forming unit at 20,005 kWh and an accessories unit at 15,836 kWh. Machining and crane motors take about 85% of that power, welding 8% and compressed air 5%. Heat treatment is outsourced, so it does not show up on your bill.

## Where the real footprint is

In a metal cutting machine, about 70% of the raw material is castings: the bed, pillar, slides and tailstock. Raw material is about 60% of production cost. A buyer asking for a product footprint will find most of it in those castings, the motors and the CNC panel, which are your Scope 3, purchased goods.

## What to record each month

1. Units from each electricity bill, and generator diesel bought.
2. Gas scm from the supplier invoice, if you use it.
3. Weight and supplier of every casting and forging bought, and whether it was made in a cupola or an induction furnace.
4. Machines dispatched, by model, so the energy can be split per machine.
5. Heat treatment job-work invoices with weight treated.

## A typical metal cutting unit, one year (estimate)

- Electricity: 22,686 kWh x 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh = 15.3 t CO2
- Diesel: 50 litres x 2.645 kg = 0.13 t CO2
- Own Scope 1 and 2: about 15.4 t CO2
- Cluster: 20.5 million kWh x 0.675 = 13,838 t, gas 712,500 scm x 2.05 kg = 1,461 t, diesel 23 t, total about 15,320 t CO2

Estimates from the cluster profile's 2015-16 figures with the CEA FY 2025-26 grid factor. Your own bills replace them.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your electricity bills, gas invoices and casting purchase invoices into one record, so your own energy and the castings behind each machine sit side by side when a buyer asks.

- [Footprint of a lathe or CNC machine](https://senseible.earth/answers/machine-tool-carbon-footprint-per-unit)
- [Rajkot foundry cluster](https://senseible.earth/answers/rajkot-foundry-cluster-carbon-footprint)
- [Carbon calculators](https://senseible.earth/calculators)

Sources: [SAMEEEKSHA, Rajkot machine tools cluster summary](https://sameeeksha.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=191&Itemid=502), [TERI, Energy profile: Rajkot machine tools cluster (2015-16 data)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/MachineTool_Rajkot.pdf), [CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector (grid factor 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26)](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.