# How much electricity does it take to process a tonne of frozen fish for export?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/seafood-processing-kwh-per-tonne-flake-ice

About 930 to 1,060 kWh a tonne in TERI's Veraval plant figures, against a quoted cluster average near 1,100. Cold storage takes about 40% of it, freezing 30% and ice making 13%; every tonne of fish is packed in about two tonnes of flake ice on the way through.

## Three plant sizes from Veraval

- 600 t a year: 5,57,656 kWh and 2 kL of diesel, about 929 kWh a tonne.
- 1,800 t a year: 17,07,176 kWh and 5 kL, about 948 kWh a tonne.
- 3,000 t a year: 31,68,760 kWh and 10 kL, about 1,056 kWh a tonne.
- Larger plants here use more per tonne, not less: category C plants run up to four blast freezers and hold about 800 t in cold store, against two freezers and about 200 t for the smallest.

## Where a plant's power goes

- Cold storage: 40%. Stores are set near minus 24 C to keep product at minus 18 C or below, often for up to three months before dispatch.
- Freezing: 30%. Blast freezers blow air at minus 40 C for 2 to 4 hour batches; IQF lines for EU orders freeze in about 15 minutes.
- Ice making: 13%. Flake ice is used because it cools fast, but it also melts fast, so about two tonnes go with every tonne of fish.
- Water supply and treatment 5%, air conditioning of the processing hall 5%, lighting 2%, other 5%.

## Reading your own figure

Divide a month's kWh by tonnes processed in that month, and keep the months apart. When the catch stops and only the cold store runs, kWh per tonne rises sharply even though nothing is wrong. An annual figure smooths that out; a buyer comparing plants should get the annual number with the months behind it.

## The ice is the cheapest place to start

Ice making is about an eighth of the bill, and two tonnes per tonne of fish is a lot of ice. Insulated tubs, ice used only where the fish needs it and an ice plant run at full load rather than topping up all day all reduce it. BEE's MSME guideline for block ice is 70 to 100 kWh per tonne; meter your flake ice plant on its own so you can compare.

## 1,800 t a year plant, CO2 per kg (estimate)

- Electricity: 17,07,176 kWh x 0.675 kg = 1,152 t
- Diesel: 5 kL x 2.645 kg per litre = 13 t
- Total: 1,166 t over 1,800 t processed = 0.65 kg CO2 per kg
- Of that, ice making at 13%: about 150 t, or 0.08 kg per kg of fish

Plant energy and the end use split from TERI's cluster profile of Veraval seafood processing industries (2016-17 data). The ice share applies TERI's typical split to this plant. Refrigerant top ups not included. CEA FY 2025-26 grid factor; diesel 2.645 kg CO2 per litre.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads monthly power bills and genset diesel invoices into CO2 per tonne processed and keeps the season's swings visible, as supplier evidence a buyer can trace.

- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [Veraval seafood energy and carbon](https://senseible.earth/answers/veraval-seafood-cluster-energy-and-co2)
- [Shrimp plant kWh per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/bhubaneswar-shrimp-plant-kwh-per-tonne)
- [Ice plant kWh per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/ice-plant-kwh-per-tonne-benchmark)

Sources: [TERI, Cluster profile: Veraval seafood processing industries (SAMEEEKSHA)](https://sameeeksha.org/pdf/clusterprofile/Veraval-Seafood-Processing-Gujarat.pdf), [BEE, Energy conservation guidelines for MSMEs](https://beeindia.gov.in/WriteReadData/L45218/1734411984.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.