Carbon emission coefficient of power consumption in India: baseline determination from the demand side

Substantial investments are expected in the Indian power sector under the flexibility mechanisms (CDM/JI) laid down in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. In this context it is important to evolve a detailed framework for baseline construction in the power sector so as to incorporate the major factors that would affect the baseline values directly or indirectly. It is also important to establish carbon coefficients from electricity generation to help consider accurate project boundaries for numerous electricity conservation and DSM schemes. The objective of this paper is to provide (i) time series estimates of indirect carbon emissions per unit of power consumption (which can also be thought of as emission coefficient of power consumption) and (ii) baseline emissions for the power sector till 2015. Annual time series data on Indian electricity generating industry, for 1974-1998, has been used to develop emission projections till 2015. The impacts of generation mix, fuel efficiency, transmission and distribution losses and auxiliary consumption are studied in a Divisia decomposition framework and their possible future impacts on baseline emissions are studied through three scenarios of growth in power consumption. The study also estimates and projects the carbon emission coefficient per unit of final consumption of electricity that can be used for conducting cost benefit of emission reduction potential for several electricity conserving technologies and benchmarking policy models.