Best Practices in CEM (Continuous Emission Monitoring)

Real-time emission monitoring and reporting using continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) has been mandated for Indian industries since February 2014. It is considered a technological leap for India's environmental governance system; an automated system is used to monitor air emissions from industry and supplies a sufficient amount of data directly to the environmental regulator on a continuous basis with the least manual intervention.

Although most of the highly polluting industries have installed the CEMS since 2014 and are supplying data to the regulators, both the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the relevant State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs), accuracy and credibility of the data are yet to be improved.

This report, prepared by the International Centre for Sustainable Carbon (ICSC, UK) with support from CEEW, on behalf of the US Department of State, is based on guidance documents, standard methodologies and best practices published in the EU, the USA and India. The collation of these approaches serves to provide the basis for best practice in India. Stakeholders should use this document as a guide based on best practices for the application of CEMS.