Vedanta Aluminium has become the largest industrial consumer of renewable energy (RE) in 2021, a company statement said.
The company has led renewable energy procurement on India’s power exchanges – Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL), the statement said.
Vedanta Aluminium procured about 2 billion kwh of RE power in 2021 for consumption at its aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda, Odisha. This procurement helped reducing GHG emissions intensity at the smelter by more than 1,540 in the year.
Vedanta Aluminium’s Jharsuguda unit is India’s largest renewable energy buyer on Green Term Ahead Market (G-TAM) platform at IEX. Vedanta’s subsidiary Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) has led the renewable energy trading session, procuring 59 per cent of the traded RE certificates (RECs) in November 2021 alone, and a total of over 2,861,700 RECs in 2021.
Net zero carbon
Speaking about Vedanta Aluminium’s ESG vision, Rahul Sharma, CEO – Aluminium Business, Vedanta Ltd, said, “We are committed to our vision of achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2050. Becoming India’s largest industrial consumer of RE in 2021 reflects our persistent endeavours to increase the share of green power in our energy mix and accelerate our transition into low-carbon operations.”
Strong precedent
Rohit Bajaj, Senior Vice President and Head – Business Development, IEX, added, “As the leading industry participant in the Green Market, Vedanta Aluminium Business has indeed set a very strong precedence for the Indian manufacturing industry to step up green energy consumption towards reducing their carbon footprint. We greatly appreciate Vedanta Aluminium’s focused endeavour towards building India’s sustainable tomorrow.”
Accelerating energy transition
Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar, MD & CEO, PXIL, said, “We congratulate BALCO for being the leading buyer in the November 2021 REC trading session. Focused RE adoption strategy by industry leaders such as Vedanta Aluminium shall inspire the industry at large to accelerate the pace of energy transition.”
Also read: Vedanta Aluminium Makes Largest Green Power Purchase On IEX
Largest aluminum producer
Vedanta Aluminium, a division of Vedanta Ltd, is India’s largest manufacturer of aluminium, producing half of India’s aluminium, standing at 1.97 million tonnes in FY21. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium has facilities at Korba in Chhattisgarh and Jharsuguda in Odisha.
(Note: KtCO2e = kilo tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent)
Featured photograph shows BALCO’s aluminium smelter at Korba in Chhattisgarh. BALCO is part of Vedanta Aluminium, the aluminum business of Vedanta Ltd, in turn a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Ltd.
