India's grid emission factor, and which figure CBAM actually uses
The Central Electricity Authority publishes India's grid emission factor every year. It is the official national figure. It is also not, on its own, a figure a CBAM declaration may use, and knowing the difference is worth money.
What CEA publishes
Five figures, not one. Most people who quote "India's grid factor" are quoting one of these without saying which. Operating margin and build margin are CDM baseline constructs, built for crediting project interventions, and they do not describe what the grid emits. The weighted average does, and it is the one this section uses.
Central Electricity Authority, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, User Guide Version 21.0, FY 2024-25. The previous version carried 0.727 for FY 2023-24. Read the user guide.
Why you cannot just use it
Point D.4 of Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547 says the emission factor for electricity used in producing goods is taken from the average emission factor of the country of origin grid as made available under Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/956. That is the Commission's published value. There are exactly two ways off it, and neither is available to an exporter acting alone.
Point D.4.4. The third country demonstrates to the Commission, by 30 June, from reliable official sources including national statistics, that the five year average intensity of its grid is lower than the published value. This is a government submission. An exporter cannot make it, and an importer cannot make it.
Only where the direct technical link or power purchase criteria in point 6 of Annex IV to Regulation (EU) 2023/956 are met, evidenced with a single line diagram among other documents. This covers a captive plant or a dedicated line, not buying from the grid.
The practical consequence: putting CEA's number into your own calculation produces a figure that is not the CBAM figure. The calculator on this site prefills it because it is the best estimate of what your electricity actually emits, which is useful for understanding your own position. It is not what a declaration will be assessed on.
The five year average, which is the test that matters
D.4.4 turns on a five year simple average, not on the latest year. Here is that average on independent public data, alongside the years it is built from.
Our World in Data, carbon intensity of electricity, built from Ember and the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy. Calendar years, so this does not line up exactly with CEA's fiscal years, and the two are shown separately rather than blended. The most recent year sits 0.040 below CEA's weighted average for its latest fiscal year, which is the sort of gap two different methods on two different periods produce.
What this is not. The figure above is what public data shows. It is not a submission, it has not been accepted by the Commission, and until it is, the published default is the one that binds.
CEA figures read from its published user guide on 16 September 2026. The series refreshes automatically. Preparation estimate. Not an official CBAM declaration or verification.