The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 02, 2021
Vedanta Aluminium Business, India’s largest producer of aluminium and value-added products, has become India’s largest green power purchaser on the Green Market at the Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) platform in Q1FY22. For its largest integrated aluminium production facility at Jharsuguda, in Odisha, Vedanta procured 354 million units of solar and non-solar renewable energy primarily from Green Term-Ahead Market (GTAM) at IEX.
IEX is a premiere energy marketplace and is the largest power exchange in the country. GTAM, introduced last year by IEX, supports buyers in procuring green energy in the most competitive and flexible manner. The purchase of green power from the exchange has enabled organisations like Vedanta and the industry at large to achieve their carbon-mitigation targets while producing ‘green’ value-added products. Vedanta Aluminium’s purchase of green power units is more than 35% of the green power traded on IEX in Q1 FY22.
Vedanta Aluminium’s energy stewardship manifests itself through a two-pronged strategy – a sharp focus on attaining highest efficiency of assets and processes for excellent energy management, and a roadmap towards carbon neutrality that includes adopting the right mix of feasible avenues for increasing consumption share of green energy.
Vedanta Aluminium bagged three Gold Awards at the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM) National Energy Management Awards 2020 for outstanding energy performance by its Aluminium Smelters I & II and Captive Power Plant at Jharsuguda. Vedanta’s Smelter-I at Jharsuguda and Alumina Refinery at Lanjigarh, also bagged ‘First Prize’ each at the prestigious National Energy Conservation Awards 2020 (NECA 2020) by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Government of India.
An Alumina Refinery is a plant where bauxite (the ore of aluminum) undergoes refining to produce aluminum oxide or alumina, and an Aluminum Smelter is a plant where alumina undergoes electrolytic reduction to produce pure aluminum.
Speaking about Vedanta’s approach towards carbon mitigation, Vedanta Aluminium Business CEO Rahul Sharma, said, “Our sustainability imperatives are designed to fulfil our climate impact reduction targets, which are in complete alignment with the goals of Paris Agreement and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) submitted by the Government of India. To that end, our efforts have been towards adopting global best-practices in energy management and deploying advanced technologies to reduce our carbon footprint. Our long-term strategy focuses on migrating to low carbon energy mix, with gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, to produce green aluminium.”
Appreciating Vedanta Aluminium’s green energy stewardship, IEX Senior Vice President & Head-Business Development Rohit Bajaj said, “At IEX, our constant focus has been to build a customer centric energy marketplace leveraging innovation and technology towards building India as a sustainable and efficient energy economy. The Green Term-Ahead Market offers the market participants an opportunity to trade in delivery based solar and non-solar renewable energy at the most competitive prices in a flexible manner. The market segment has been operational for over a year now and has received splendid response from industries, especially the energy intensive ones as well as the distribution utilities.”
“IEX congratulates Vedanta Aluminium Business for being a leading participant in the green market and greatly appreciates their efforts in inspiring the industry at large to step up green energy procurement and reduce carbon footprint,” he added.
Vedanta Aluminium’s operations are aligned to the recommendations made by the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Vedanta Aluminium Business Units have always been forerunners in the field of energy efficiency and sustainability.
Vedanta Aluminium has significantly reduced its GHG emission intensity by 21% with 2012 as baseline and aims to reduce it by 24% in 2025 over the same baseline.
There has been reduction in indirect energy consumption of 2 million Giga Joules (GJ) between FY20 and FY21 at Vedanta Aluminium’s captive assets.
Climate action initiatives across all Business Units of Vedanta Aluminium have resulted in energy conservation of 1.4 million GJ and GHG savings of 0.32 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in FY 20-21.
Vedanta’s aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda is India’s first, and the world’s third smelter to deploy Digital Smelter Solution, which uses digital twin technology to enhance energy efficiency.
The Jharsuguda smelter is also the first aluminium smelter in Asia to receive ISO 50001 certificate for Energy Management System since 2013.
Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), Vedanta’s subsidiary at Chhattisgarh, achieved lowest specific power consumption in its Potline-I in 2020, setting a benchmark among Aluminium Smelters in India and the Gulf countries.
Vedanta’s ‘Carbon Forum’ is actively working on guiding implementation of the company’s carbon mitigation approach.
Vedanta Aluminium Business in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, a division of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest manufacturer of aluminium, producing half of India’s aluminium i.e. 1.96 million tonnes in FY21. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. With its world-class Aluminium Smelters, Alumina Refinery and Power Plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.
