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I guess mere electrification does not qualify for CDM. Source of electricity is the significant aspect of it. Unfortunately thermal power plants provide a huge portion of electricity in India. Emission Factor of Indian Thermal Plants is quite high. Someone was telling the other day that projects or activities that result in a minimum reduction of 1 million ton of carbon dioxide per year qualify for Carbon Credit. It's much easier for power generators to make out a strong case by switching over to a technology or process that increases the efficiency of the process of generation and in turn leads to reduction in emission. For end users, I'm told, the process for obtaining carbon credit is much more stringent. For example, all calculations have to be backed by a strong and authentic data base. Normative calculations would not do. I do not know if we already have a mechanism that records the real time fuel efficiency of our locos. In case of electric locos, tying up the load for our motive power stations based on normative calculations is one thing and how much load each loco actually draws under real time conditions is quite another. I have a feeling that we might be tying up a much higher load than we actually draw. In case of diesel locos, there does not seem to be any real time database. At least that was my experience when we were doing such calculations in Railway Board. Having said that, any CDM proposal must be holistic in approach for an end user like us. Since what ultimately counts is how much carbon dioxide emission is reduced by the project or range of activities, the same has to be established through (a) a switch over to a technology or practice that results in lesser power consumption, (b) switch over to a fuel that emits much lesser carbon - both during its generation and utilization. Some examples could be:
(1) Replacing normal lamps and tubelights by CF lamps all over Indian Railways - offices, stations, workshops, residential buildings.
(2) Switching over to electrical locos and making sure that the electricity that we buy is from a cleaner source. This can be achieved by investing money in new power plants that are being set up with a cleaner technology and swapping the credit for the same while drawing electricity from all sorts of sources all over the country.
Whatever the proposal contains, it must establish that it would lead to a minimum reduction of 1 million ton of carbon dioxide per year.

Subhashisha Nath
Dy FA&CAO, COFMOW

yeah. that's a better of way of going about things. whole hog. with the volume. in stead of the piece meal approach.

We somehow seem to be missing the point in the electrical loco v. diesel loco debate. We have to be very clear about if we are interested in getting carbon credit. The thumb rule is very clear. At least 1 million ton of carbon dioxide per year. If we have decided that we are interested, then we will have to look for a way to go about it. I have stated else where that merely shifting over to electrical locos shall not qualify us suo motu for carbon credit. Our proposal has to establish that it would reduce 1 million ton of carbon dioxide in a year. Mere electrification shall not get us any credit on its own. If electrification is taken recourse to for whatever reason and simultaneously electricity is sourced from a plant with a technology that is cleaner than others, we could have a case. The same could be achieved by merely going for a cleaner source without taking recourse to any further electrification. The bottom line is we have to see what is the cost of such a switch over and how much carbon credit is obtained - and not to forget how much responsible we feel for the pollution that we are causing for our current range of activities. The responsibility for the latter can be leveraged elese where.

The proposal for replacing the lamps of existing colonies with CFL is an excellent one. We could have done it on our own. But then the credit we could have got for the same may not have been the same as the cost we have incurred. A manufacturer of CFL lamps decided to do it on our behalf and pass on some percentage of the credit to us because we provided him with the opportunity.

Subhashisha Nath