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FAQs and Instructions
About the tracker
What is this?
The CSEP Electricity and Carbon Tracker is a near-real-time tracker
that shows electricity generated by source (eg Renewable, Thermal) at a national level.
It also shows total electricity-based CO2 emissions every 5 minutes and CO2
emissions per kWh. Additionally, it displays the moving averages for each generation source,
as well as a wide variety of summary statistics and analysis.
The CSEP Electricity and Carbon Tracker is not linked to carbontracker.org.
Why is this important?
This India electricity tracker is the first of its kind focusing on
high-resolution and near-real-time data.
Until now, national electricity generation data was only available on a daily basis, as energy (kWh).
This tracker focuses on capacity (kW) over time, which makes it possible to draw patterns and
inferences about electricity generation in the country for planning and policy purposes.
For example, it helps us see Carbon Intensity of the grid at a granular time-varying level,
thus identifying time instances when the grid is the "greenest",
or the relative contribution of (and thus value of) different types of
generators at different times.
Who are we?
We are one of India's leading policy research think tanks.
You can view more about us and our work at csep.org
Instructions
The interface is different based on your device.
A computer is recommended over a mobile device or tablet as it allows a richer interface.
Choosing the time period
- Computers default to the current week's generation data
- Mobiles/Tablets default to the Summary Statistics and Analysis page
Choosing the type of output
Using the second selector at the top,
one can choose between several types of views or results:
- Corrected Generation Data (with limited corrections)
- Raw Generation Data
- Moving Averages
- Summary Statistics and Analysis
- Load Duration Curves
The first two options, at a 5 minute resolution, also show CO2 from electricity generation,
both per kWh as well as total tons per 5 minute period.
Navigating the data
{Note: Mobile/tablet interfaces lose the ability to have mouse-overs}
- The legend on the side shows different data sets available, and clicking on a type
(such as renewable) toggles between showing or hiding that data set.
- Double-clicking on a legend data label isolates that particular data set.
Others can then be added one-by-one as desired by clicking on them.
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Moving the mouse enables a set of navigation options that include
- Zoom - click and drag with the mouse to zoom
- Pan
- Zoom in (without selecting an area via clicking)
- Zoom out
- Autoscale
- Reset Axes
- You can also manually change the Y-axes by either panning them up or down,
or changing the upper/lower bounds by scrolling from the top/bottom ends of the Y-axes.
- The Summary Statistics and Analysis page shows some interesting statistics for the period
you have selected, such as total tons of CO2 emitted,
and the average daily peak generation in MW, share of RE by time of day, etc.
Glossary
- Demand Met: Total national electricity demand measured at state
transmission grid boundaries
- Net Demand: Total generation minus renewable generation
(thus, it is technically supply, and not demand, but those are similar)
- Total Generation NLDC Grid Level: Electricity supplied to the grid at either central
or state levels as connected to the SCADA system (thus, excludes small generators)
Data, Methodology and Limitations
Data
- We obtain data every 3 minutes, as national generation by source in MW, as well as national demand met
in MW. This allows us to display and analyse data based on 5 minute intervals.
- The underlying data in instrumented data available as per NLDC/RLDCs, via the SCADA system.
Methodology
- The data is then mapped to the nearest preceding 5-minute timestamp, which you can see under
Raw Generation Data.
- However, sometimes there are errors in this data where there is a sudden reduction in
generation from one or more sources. You can see an example of this on January 7th 2019
at 2:40 pm.
- Under Corrected Generation Data, we apply limited corrections for any generation source
that has dropped by more than 10% in a time block.
- CO2 emissions are calculated by converting generation by fossil fuel source to
MWh for each 5-minute block, and then multiplying by the CEA's weighted average specific
emission factors for each type of fuel as mentioned in the report CO2 Baseline Database for
the Indian Power Sector (December 2018).
- gCO2/kWh is calculated by dividing emissions by total generation for a
time period.
- For Moving Averages per timestamp, we calculate the average for a fixed period
preceding a timestamp. For example, for weekly moving averages for thermal generation at
a timestamp, we find the average thermal generation in MW over the 7 days before the
timestamp.
Limitations
- The tracker only includes generation connected to the SCADA system. There is some non-SCADA
generation which is not included in the tracker, so actual generation (especially renewable
generation) may be higher.
- This is also the reason that total generation may be lower than demand met at times.
- We use constant emission factors for each source for all times of day, without differentiating
down to the plant level. Additionally, the carbon emissions factors for hydro, nuclear and
renewable generation are taken as zero, thus ignoring embedded or lifecycle emissions.
Selected Findings and Insights
Please see the discussion note
available here.
Terms of Use and Referencing/Citation
Please reference this as The CSEP Electricity and Carbon Tracker.
Contact Us
You can reach us at energy@csep.org.