OPEX (Operating Expenditure)

Operating Expenditure (OPEX) is the recurring day-to-day cost of running an established business — everything spent to convert input into output and reach the customer, excluding the one-time CAPEX of building the asset. For waste-processing and bioenergy plants the line items are remarkably consistent across sectors and form a useful template for plan validation.

• Raw material and consumables (35-55% of OPEX): feedstock purchase price plus inbound freight; for CBG this is paddy straw, press mud, food waste or cattle dung at ₹500-2,500 per tonne; for tyre pyrolysis it is end-of-life tyres at ₹15-20 per kg; for plastic recycling it is post-consumer bales at ₹25-45 per kg.
• Power and utilities (12-22%): industrial electricity at ₹7-9 per unit, water, compressed air, steam, diesel for backup. CBG plants typically consume 0.7-1.2 kWh per Nm³ of biogas processed.
• Labour (10-18%): plant operators, technicians, lab analysts, security, administrative staff at fully-loaded cost including PF, gratuity and welfare.
• Maintenance and spares (6-10%): planned and breakdown maintenance; rule of thumb is 3-5% of CAPEX per year.
• Logistics (5-12%): outbound transport of CBG cascades, digestate, recycled material; rises sharply with delivery radius.
• Other (3-8%): insurance, statutory fees, lab testing, contingency, administrative.

OPEX is the lever that determines whether a well-designed plant becomes a profitable one. A 5 TPD CBG plant with annual OPEX of ₹4-5 crore on revenue of ₹6-7 crore at SATAT prices delivers an EBITDA margin of 25-35% — but a 10% feedstock price spike or a 15% drop in uptime can compress that margin to single digits. OPEX-discipline measures include long-term feedstock contracts with price escalators, captive power through CHP or rooftop solar, predictive maintenance to stretch spare-part cycles, and a multi-product output strategy (CBG plus digestate plus recovered CO₂) that spreads OPEX across more revenue lines.