# Does the UK CBAM count the electricity our plant uses?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/uk-cbam-electricity-not-counted

No, not at the start. The UK CBAM applies only to direct emissions from 1 January 2027, and HMRC's technical guidance says electricity is not captured. At Budget 2025 the government delayed indirect emissions to 2029 at the earliest. Electricity from your own CHP plant is handled separately.

## What is in and what is out

- In: fuel burned on site, process emissions, emissions from heat you make or buy, and precursor emissions.
- Out: grid electricity and its emissions, until at least 2029.
- Separate rule: a combined heat and power unit splits its emissions between heat and power by a set formula.

## Why it matters for power-heavy plants

For an induction furnace or an electric arc furnace mill, grid power is often the biggest source. Under the UK scheme that part does not enter the CBAM figure for now. The same product under the EU scheme can be treated differently, so do not send one number to both buyers without checking which emissions each counts.

## Keep the electricity records anyway

Indirect emissions may come in from 2029. Your buyers' Scope 3 requests and the EU scheme also use electricity. At India's grid factor of 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, a plant using 600 kWh per tonne carries about 0.405 tCO2 per tonne from power that the UK figure leaves out today.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills and fuel invoices separately, so it can show the direct figure the UK asks for and the electricity figure other buyers ask for, from the same records. We build the figure from your records and check every figure in-house; for the UK it must then be verified by a verifier accredited for UK CBAM. Have your own verifier? Send it to them.

- [How the EU CBAM treats electricity](https://senseible.earth/answers/does-cbam-count-electricity-emissions-steel)
- [Grid electricity factor](https://senseible.earth/emission-factors/grid-electricity)
- [CBAM Suite](https://senseible.earth/cbam-suite)

Sources: [HMRC, UK CBAM monitoring, reporting and verification technical guidance (October 2026)](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ad219fe0f7b53973e02680f/CBAM_technical_guidance.pdf), [HM Treasury and HMRC, CBAM consultation on scope expansion to refinery products (October 2026)](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ae205e89bca21f1c5036ea0/Carbon_Border_Adjustment_Mechanism-sectoral_scope_expansion_to_refinery_products.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-02.