The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
JHARSUGUDA, SEPT 23, 2021
Both Power Plants at Vedanta Jharsuguda, India’s largest producer of aluminium and its value-added products, were awarded as the ‘Best Water-Efficient Plant’ at the Water Optimization Conference, organised by the Mission Energy Foundation.
Vedanta’s 4×600 MW Thermal Power Plant (TPP) and 9X135 MW Captive Power Plant (CPP) won the awards in the ‘>=500MW’ and ‘<=500MW’ categories respectively, for their innovative measures to optimize water consumption across their value-chain and increase the share of recycled and reused water.
To further bolster its efforts in water conservation, Vedanta has recently commissioned a Reverse Osmosis (RO) based Effluent Treatment Plant at its TPP in Jharsuguda. The 500 m3/hr capacity Effluent Treatment Plant will collect wastewater from various processes and will treat it to make it useful for various purposes across the plant, thereby ensuring maximum recycling of wastewater and conservation of freshwater.
Speaking about the company’s water stewardship, Vedanta Ltd. Jharsuguda Deputy CEO Deepak Prasad said, “We have laser-sharp focus on water conservation at our operations and beyond and this award is a recognition of our efforts. In line with our mission ‘Zero Harm, Zero Waste and Zero Discharge’, we have adopted various robust measures to recycle and reuse wastewater from all plant processes.”
In FY21, Vedanta Jharsuguda has recycled a total of 86 lakh litres of water. The company has undertaken robust measures to optimize water consumption across its value-chain and increase the share of recycled and reused water, such as: Water-screening assessment to develop and implement stringent control measures to ensure zero discharge operations; Integration of water management into decision-making processes for all projects; Continuous and online monitoring of water quality parameters, including reduction of specific water consumption; Regular water consumption related audits, and appropriate measures to ensure continually improved performance; Water monitoring and control through SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system; Optimization of freshwater intake by maximizing usage of water recycled through state-of-the-art Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP), augmented with Ultra Filtration (UF), and Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Multi Evaporation Systems (MES); On-site water reservoirs have been created for water sourcing during contingency scenarios; Quick Response Teams to respond to extreme weather conditions, including unprecedented heavy rainfall; Help to district administration in supplying drinking water to peripheral communities during summer months.
The company also helped farmers in the community adopt drip-irrigation, treadle pump, solar powered water pumps, rainwater harvesting structures like percolation tanks, etc. to boost irrigation potential and reduce dependency on monsoons for cropping.
It also built several water-related community infrastructures like tube wells, bore wells, ponds, percolation tanks, etc. to help communities access water for household and irrigation purposes.
Vedanta is India’s largest producer of the green metal, aluminium, operating a world-class 1.6 MTPA aluminium smelter and 3615 MW thermal power generation facility in Jharsuguda, Odisha. The only Indian smelter in the global ‘1 Million Tonne’ production and export club, Vedanta Jharsuguda is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications across core industries. With its state-of-the-art facilities, unparalleled engineering prowess, R&D and innovation abilities, Vedanta Jharsuguda is working towards a sustainable and greener future for all by spurring emerging applications of aluminium, the ‘Metal of the Future’
