New Delhi: Vedanta Aluminium Business, India’s largest producer of the aluminium and value-added products, has bagged three ‘Gold Awards’ at the SEEM National Energy Management Awards (SNEMA) 2020 for excellence in energy management at its Aluminium Smelters I & II and 1215 MW Captive Power Plant at Jharsuguda, Odisha.
An Aluminium Smelter is a plant where aluminium oxide or alumina undergoes electrolytic reduction to produce pure aluminium. Vedanta Jharsuguda’s 1215 MW Captive Power Plant and 2400 MW Thermal Power Plant have also won at the Thermal Power Plant Operation & Maintenance Conference and Awards 2021 for overall operational excellence.
Speaking about Vedanta’s energy stewardship, Mr. Rahul Sharma, CEO – Vedanta Aluminium Business, said, “As India’s largest producer of aluminium, a 100% recyclable metal, we are cognizant of our responsibilities towards sustainable development and climate action. We are working towards it through a three-pronged strategy of ensuring judicious resource usage, energy-efficient operations, and renewable energy sourcing. We have adopted global best-practises in energy and resource management, and deployed cutting-edge solutions to reduce our carbon footprint. We are also exploring viable options of renewable energy sourcing for producing aluminium, the green metal.”
Energy management is at the heart of Vedanta Aluminium’s climate action roadmap, and finds realization through dedicated efforts towards attaining highest operational efficiency of assets and processes. In agreement with the recommendations made by the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and guided by the Vedanta Group’s Carbon Forum, Vedanta Aluminium is working towards executing its carbon management practises as per the TCFD Framework. These include impactful initiatives for optimisation of specific energy consumption in production processes and a long-term focus on migrating to low carbon energy mix.
Vedanta’s Alumina Refinery, Aluminium Smelters and Power Plants have been forerunners in the realm of energy management, among the Indian manufacturing sectors. Few notable initiatives and highlights:
- Vedanta Aluminium has significantly reduced its GHG emission intensity by 21% with 2012 as baseline, and aims to reduceit by 24% in 2025 over the same baseline.
- Reduction in indirect energy consumption of2 million Giga Joules (GJ) between FY20 and FY21at Vedanta Aluminium’s captive assets.
- Climate action initiatives across all Business Units 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.
- In FY 2020-21, Vedanta Aluminium purchased around 98 million units equivalent of renewable power, including power from renewable sources and Renewable Energy Certificates.
- 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, predictive and prescriptive analytics to enhance energy efficiency.
- The Jharsuguda smelter is also the firstaluminium 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. A potline is a long building, or collection of buildings, located in a smelter and contains a series of ‘pots’, or large. electrolytic cells, in which aluminium smelting is carried out.
- Vedanta’s ‘Carbon Forum’is actively working on guiding implementation of the company’s carbon mitigation approach.
Vedanta Aluminium Business, a division of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest manufacturer of aluminium, producing half of India’s aluminium at 1.96 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) 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.
