Carbon Emission Intensity of Power Consumption in India: A Detailed Study of its Indicators

This paper analyzes the trends and components of carbon emission intensity of power consumption in India by economic activity for the period 1974 - 1994 using the Divisia decomposition to quantify the relative influences of its three major indicators, viz., emission coefficient of power, electricity intensity, and structural shift. We further analyze the causes for the variations of emission coefficient for power consumption by deriving the relative influences of fuel mix, fuel intensity, and generation mix on emission coefficient and hence carbon intensity. The study explicitly accounts for fuel quality variations, generation, and transmission and distribution (T & D) losses and auxiliary consumption variations. Results show major increases in both emission intensity and emission coefficient during the 1980s. We find electricity intensity to be the major contributing factor behind the 40% emission intensity rise during this period. The emission coefficient increased by 13% during this period, the major contributing factor being generation mix effects, which increased by 27.6%, offsetting the effect of fuel quality, whose indexdeclined by 10%.