Energy per Kg in Knitwear Dyeing and Processing: What BEE Cluster Studies Measured (₹)
How much energy does it take to dye and process a kg of fabric in India? BEE's Pali cluster manual (2009–10) measured an average of 1.2 kWh of electricity and 15,000 kcal of heat per kg; best units used 0.95 kWh and 10,932 kcal, 27% less heat. As of 20 Oct 2026, BEE has published no Tirupur dyeing benchmark.
Last checked: 20 Oct 2026
By the Mama Editorial Team. Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) figures come from its SME Programme manuals: Pali dated 2009–10, Surat and Solapur undated. The ₹ example uses labelled assumptions.
Verified against
- BEE, Cluster Manual – Pali Textile Cluster, BEE SME Programme, prepared by Petroleum Conservation Research Association (project March 2009 – Dec 2010): PDF
- BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Textile Cluster, Surat, prepared by Zenith Energy Services: PDF
- BEE, Manual on Energy Conservation Measures in Textile Cluster, Solapur, prepared by Zenith Energy Services: PDF
- BEE, Tiruppur cluster mapping note: PDF
- BEE, list of Cluster Specific Manuals
- TERI, Energy implications of water: a case study of Tirupur (2013): PDF
- BEE, ADEETIE scheme page
- Checked 20 Oct 2026
The per-kg and per-metre numbers BEE published
Each row is copied from the BEE document in the Source column.
| Cluster (product) | Metric | Average | Best / range | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pali (polyester saree processing and printing) | Electricity per kg | 1.2 | best 0.95 | kWh/kg | BEE Pali manual, §2.2.3 |
| Pali (same) | Thermal energy per kg | 15,000 | best 10,932 | kcal/kg | BEE Pali manual, §2.2.3 |
| Solapur (cotton yarn dyeing, towels) | Electricity per kg final product | 1.24 | 1.00 – 1.48 | kWh/kg | BEE Solapur manual, §3.2.2 |
| Solapur (same) | Wood per kg yarn dyed | 0.60 | 0.50 – 0.75 | kg wood/kg | BEE Solapur manual, Table 3 |
| Solapur (same) | Dyeing machines, electricity | 0.05 | 0.04 – 0.07 | kWh/kg | BEE Solapur manual, Table 3 |
| Surat (synthetic sarees, dress material) | Jet dyeing machine, electricity | 0.017 | 0.016 – 0.019 | kWh/metre | BEE Surat manual, Table 5 |
| Surat (same) | Stenter, electricity | 0.019 | 0.018 – 0.020 | kWh/metre | BEE Surat manual, Table 5 |
| Surat (same) | Energy share of manufacturing cost | — | 12 – 15 | % | BEE Surat manual, §2.1.1 |
The Pali manual also reproduces a Carbon Trust (UK) machine table: jet dyeing 3.5–16.0 GJ per tonne and winch dyeing 6.0–17.0 GJ per tonne, per BEE Pali manual §2.2.3.
The Pali manual's own estimate is a net saving opportunity of 15–30% in fuel and 20–30% in electricity across the cluster, per its executive summary (2009–10).
All rows above, plus the payback table below, are in a downloadable file: /static/data/knitwear-dyeing-energy-per-kg-bee-cluster-data.csv.
What BEE did not publish for Tirupur and Ludhiana
BEE's list of Cluster Specific Manuals carries three textile manuals, Surat, Pali and Solapur, and no Tirupur or Ludhiana knitwear manual (checked 20 Oct 2026). The "Batala, Jalandhar & Ludhiana" manual on the same list covers foundries, not hosiery.
BEE's Tiruppur mapping note states: "We have covered units in different categories but not covered dyeing & bleaching units." It names electricity as the major energy source, with HSD for power backup.
BEE's later textile sectoral report (Sectoral_Report_BEE_Textile_updated.pdf) now redirects to the BEE home page (checked 20 Oct 2026).
Tirupur numbers from other Indian studies
TERI's 2013 Tirupur case study measured one export garment unit over three months. Water-related electricity in dyeing and bleaching was 3.86 kWh per kilolitre of water, while the zero-liquid-discharge ETP used 8 kWh per kilolitre, about double, per TERI (2013).
The same TERI study found 41.5% of that unit's electricity came from in-house diesel generators, and about 184.4 kg of coal was burned per tonne of steam.
Good Business Lab audited more than 60 dyeing MSMEs in Kolkata and Tiruppur in 2024 and early 2025. They reported an average of about 2,000 tonnes of solid fuel per unit per year, mostly wood, and said energy-efficiency measures, many needing little or no investment, could save Tiruppur firms nearly 400 tonnes, about 15%, per IDR, 15 Apr 2026.
Top measures by payback, as BEE costed them
Paybacks are at BEE-era (c. 2009–10) prices. With today's higher fuel prices most would be shorter, which is our inference, not BEE's.
| Measure | Cluster | Investment (₹ lakh) | Saving (₹ lakh/yr) | Payback (months) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mangle nip pressure optimisation (stenter) | Pali | 0.5 | 4.57 | 1.2 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| Blocking air passages in stenters | Pali | 0.5 | 3.96 | 1.5 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| Thermopak excess-air control with VFD on ID/FD fans | Pali | 5.0 | 23.32 | 2.6 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| Fabric moisture control to stop over-drying in stenters | Pali | 0.5 | 2.16 | 2.8 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| Excess-air control in boilers | Pali | 5.0 | 8.29 | 4.4 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| Heat recovery from hot jet-machine drain water | Surat | 6.0 | 10.22 | 6 | Surat Table 13 |
| VFD on jet dyeing machine water pump | Pali | 1.0 | 1.85 | 7 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| Flash steam recovery in jet dyeing machines | Pali | 1.5 | 1.91 | 9.4 | Pali §5.1.3 |
| VFD on jet machines (cluster-wide, ~300 machines) | Surat | 120 | 161.38 | 10 | Surat §3.4.1.5 |
| Slowing stenter fans during idling | Pali | 1.0 | 0.79 | 15.2 | Pali §3.4 |
The Surat drain-water calculation assumed a boiler efficiency of 51%, per Table 13 of the Surat manual.
The Pali manual observed that a stenter stood idle "for at least one hour every day" in stops of 5 to 15 minutes, with fans left at high speed.
A worked ₹ example for a knit dye house
Assume a Tirupur knit dye house finishing 2 tonnes of fabric a day for 300 days, 600 tonnes a year. Assume firewood at ₹6,000 per tonne with a GCV of 3,200 kcal/kg (the GCV the Solapur manual used) and grid power at ₹8 per kWh. Assume it sits at Pali's average and could reach Pali's best. BEE's kcal figure is treated as fuel heat input, so no boiler-efficiency factor is added; Pali units mostly burned residual petcoke, not wood (Pali §2.2.1).
| Line | At BEE Pali average | At BEE Pali best | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat per kg (kcal/kg) | 15,000 | 10,932 | 4,068 |
| Wood per kg (kg/kg) | 4.69 | 3.42 | 1.27 |
| Fuel cost per kg (₹/kg) | 28.1 | 20.5 | 7.6 |
| Electricity per kg (kWh/kg) | 1.2 | 0.95 | 0.25 |
| Power cost per kg (₹/kg) | 9.6 | 7.6 | 2.0 |
| Energy cost per kg (₹/kg) | 37.7 | 28.1 | 9.6 |
| Energy cost per year, 600 t (₹ lakh) | 226.4 | 168.6 | 57.8 |
At these assumptions the gap between an average and a best unit is about ₹58 lakh a year. The average case implies about 2,800 tonnes of wood a year, close to the 2,000 tonnes per unit Good Business Lab reported. Pali processed polyester with printing, and cotton reactive dyeing of knits runs different temperatures and wash-offs, so treat Pali as a yardstick, not a target. Your own number comes from 12 months of fuel and power bills divided by kg dispatched. The energy-per-unit calculator does that division.
What breaks the numbers in a dye house
- Diesel backup. If 41% of power comes from DG sets, as in TERI's Tirupur unit, the real ₹ per kWh is far above the grid tariff.
- ZLD load. TERI's ZLD plant used about twice the electricity per kilolitre of dyeing's water use, so a per-kg figure that leaves it out flatters the unit.
- Wet wood. Moisture lowers GCV, so tonnes of wood per kg of fabric rise in the monsoon even if nothing on the floor changed.
- Idle machines. A stenter idling with fans at high speed and a jet held hot between lots burn energy and produce no kg.
When to call an energy auditor
Call one when your energy per kg moves 10% in a quarter without a change in shade mix, or before buying a new boiler. Ask for boiler efficiency by the indirect method and condensate return as a share of steam.
BEE's ADEETIE scheme reimburses an investment-grade energy audit or DPR up to ₹1 lakh for medium units and ₹75,000 for micro and small units per project, for Udyam-registered units in its listed clusters, with textiles among its 14 sectors, per the BEE ADEETIE page (checked 20 Oct 2026). Central and state support for textile units is collected in textile and garment government support 2026.
Related: where a textile unit can spend less and US DOE textile audit measures and payback.
Where Mama fits
Several of the quick-payback items above are about machines running while no fabric moves: stenters idling, jets held hot between lots. Mama reads the cameras a dye house already has and tells the owner each morning how many hours each machine stood idle yesterday, which is the number you need next to the energy bill. Leave an email or phone in the form below.
FAQ
What is the energy consumption of textile dyeing per kg?
BEE's Pali cluster manual (2009–10) measured an average of 1.2 kWh of electricity and 15,000 kcal of heat per kg of processed fabric, with best units at 0.95 kWh and 10,932 kcal. Solapur yarn dyers used 0.50–0.75 kg of wood per kg of yarn.
How much does it cost to dye 1 kg of fabric in Tirupur?
BEE has published no Tirupur dyeing cost (checked 20 Oct 2026). At the assumptions in the worked example above, energy alone is about ₹28–38 per kg. Your bills divided by kg dispatched give the real figure.
How much can a small dye house save on energy?
BEE's Pali manual put the net opportunity at 15–30% of fuel and 20–30% of electricity. Good Business Lab's 2024–25 audits found about 15% fuel savings available to Tiruppur dyeing firms, many needing little or no investment (IDR, Apr 2026).