cost-competitive (cost competitive)

Cost-competitive, when applied to compressed biogas, claims that CBG can be produced and delivered at a landed cost comparable to or below the equivalent landed cost of fossil CNG or diesel on an energy-equivalent basis. The claim is real but conditional — it holds only when specific cost drivers are managed and when by-product revenues are counted alongside the gas revenue.

The notified SATAT base price of ₹54-55 per kg of CBG at 50 MJ/kg translates to roughly ₹1.10 per MJ of delivered energy. Fossil CNG at city-gate retail prices of ₹85-95 per kg works out to ₹1.70-1.90 per MJ, and BS-VI diesel at ₹90-95 per litre with 36 MJ/litre gives ₹2.50-2.65 per MJ. On the price-per-energy axis CBG looks decisively cheaper at the pump. The competitive question is whether the producer's all-in cost is below the SATAT realisation.

A well-run 5 TPD CBG plant lands its production cost between ₹35-50 per kg of CBG, broken roughly into feedstock 35-45%, power and utilities 12-18%, labour 8-12%, maintenance 5-8%, logistics 4-8%, finance cost on term loan 10-15%, and depreciation 8-12%. Add the CFA subsidy of ₹4 crore, the digestate revenue at ₹2,000-4,000 per tonne (with PM PRANAM's ₹1,500/tonne MDA), and the captured CO₂ revenue at ₹3-5 per kg, and the plant moves from breakeven to 25-35% EBITDA margin.

The conditions that make the cost-competitive claim true are precisely the ones that often go wrong. Feedstock above ₹2,000-2,500 per tonne pushes production cost past SATAT realisation. Sub-75% uptime in the first year doubles per-kg fixed costs. Long delivery radius beyond 150 km consumes the margin in logistics. Ignoring digestate sales (because of FCO compliance gaps) strips 15-20% of total revenue. Cost-competitiveness is therefore not a property of the technology but the outcome of disciplined feedstock sourcing, conservative ramp-up planning, by-product monetisation and short delivery radius.