DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17704577
title: CHETNA-Power Plants: Unit-Level Inventory with Daily Generation and CO₂ Emissions for India (2018–2025)

description: The CHETNA–Power Plants dataset provides a unit-level, daily record of electricity generation and associated CO₂ emissions for India’s power sector covering the period 2018–2025. The dataset integrates a harmonized plant–unit inventory with daily power generation records and unit-year-specific emission intensity estimates, enabling consistent tracking of power-sector activity and emissions at high spatial and temporal resolution.

The dataset covers all major power-generation technologies in India, including coal-fired thermal power plants, gas–diesel units, hydropower, and nuclear power. For each generating unit, the inventory component provides standardized identifiers, geographic location, administrative attributes, installed and monitored capacity, fuel type, generation technology, commissioning and retirement information, and annual performance indicators. Daily records report gross and net electricity generation, outage indicators, and estimated CO₂ emissions, with explicit flags to distinguish reported values from gap-filled, rescaled, or constrained estimates.

CO₂ emissions are estimated by linking harmonized daily electricity generation with unit-year-specific emission intensity, allowing the dataset to capture heterogeneity in operational performance across plants and units rather than relying on fuel-based temporal downscaling or uniform emission factors. Uncertainty bounds are provided for emission intensity and daily emissions to document model-related uncertainty and data-processing effects. All data processing steps, including plant–unit matching, gap filling, and consistency constraints, are transparently documented.

The CHETNA–Power Plants dataset is intended to support high-resolution emission monitoring, model evaluation, efficiency benchmarking, and system-level analyses of power-sector emissions and operational dynamics in India. A detailed description of all dataset attributes, variables, units, and flags is provided in the table below.

 

Table 1. Details of the attributes in the plant-unit inventory








Variable name



Description



Unit





zone_name



Power grid zone of the plant



–





type



Plant type (e.g. THER, THER (GT), DG)



–





state_id



Indian state or union territory



–





fiscal_year



Fiscal year of record



–





plant_name



Standardized plant name



–





unit



Unit identifier within the plant



–





possible_names



Alternative plant names used across datasets



–





latitude



Latitude of the plant



degrees





longitude



Longitude of the plant



degrees





unit_status



Operational status of the unit



–





start_year



Year of commissioning



year





retired_year



Year of retirement (if applicable)



year





fuel_gem



Primary fuel category (GEM classification)



–





technology



Generation technology (e.g. subcritical, combined cycle)



–





fuel1



Primary fuel type



–





fuel2



Secondary fuel type (if applicable)



–





installed_capacity_mw



Installed capacity



MW





monitored_capacity_mw



Capacity covered by operational records



MW





net_generation_mu



Annual net electricity generation



MU (GWh)





fuel_1_consumption_if_coal_only_national_coal



Annual fuel-1 consumption (domestic coal)



t





fuel_1_consumption_only_for_imported_coal



Annual fuel-1 consumption (imported coal)



t





fuel_2_consumption



Annual fuel-2 consumption



t





gcvkcal_kg_fuel_1_if_coal_only_national_coal



GCV of domestic coal



kcal kg⁻¹





gcvkcal_kg_fuel_1_only_for_imported_coal



GCV of imported coal



kcal kg⁻¹





gcvkcal_kg_fuel_2



GCV of secondary fuel



kcal kg⁻¹





co2ton_fuel_1



CO₂ emissions from fuel 1



t CO₂





co2ton_fuel_2



CO₂ emissions from fuel 2



t CO₂





co2_fuel2_pct



Share of fuel-2 in total CO₂ emissions



%





total_co2ton



Total annual CO₂ emissions



t CO₂





emission_factor_ton_mwh



CO₂ emission intensity



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





auxilary_cons_pct_cal



Auxiliary consumption rate



%





is_emission_factor_predicted



Flag indicating predicted emission factor



0/1





daily_agg_gross_GWh



Aggregated daily gross generation



GWh





lower_95_prediction_emission_factor_ton_mwh



Lower 95 % bound of the emission factor from the ML model



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





upper_95_prediction_emission_factor_ton_mwh



Upper 95 % bound of the emission factor from the ML model



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





emission_factor_ton_mwh_knn_q05



5th percentile bound from scenario analysis with KNN



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





emission_factor_ton_mwh_knn_q25



25th percentile bound from scenario analysis with KNN



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





emission_factor_ton_mwh_knn_q75



75th percentile bound from scenario analysis with KNN



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





emission_factor_ton_mwh_knn_q95



95th percentile bound from scenario analysis with KNN



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹





emission_factor_ton_mwh_knn_mean



Mean emission factor from scenario analysis with KNN



t CO₂ MWh⁻¹






 

Table 2. Details of the attributes in the daily report dataset








Variable name



Description



Unit





state



Indian state or union territory



–





date



Calendar date



YYYY-MM-DD





plant_name



Standardized plant name



–





unit



Unit identifier



–





type



Plant type



–





fiscal_year



Fiscal year



–





actual_GWh



Reported gross electricity generation



GWh





net_generation



Net electricity generation



GWh





outage_flag



Indicator of unit outage



0/1





emissions_tons



Estimated daily CO₂ emissions



t CO₂





prediction_flag



Flag indicating predicted daily emissions



P - gap filled

S - rescaled

C - constrained with daily sum





emissions_tons_lower_95



Lower 95 % bound of daily CO₂ emissions



t CO₂





emissions_tons_upper_95



Upper 95 % bound of daily CO₂ emissions



t CO₂





emissions_tons_knn_q05



5th percentile (KNN)



t CO₂





emissions_tons_knn_q95



95th percentile (KNN)



t CO₂