Vedanta Aluminium Becomes India’s Largest Industrial Consumer of RE in 2021

Vedanta Aluminium Business, India’s largest producer of aluminium and value-added products, has become the largest industrial consumer of renewable energy (RE) in 2021, on India’s power exchanges – Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).

Commenting on the achievement, Rahul Sharma, CEO – Aluminium Business, Vedanta Ltd, said, “We are committed to our vision of achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2050. To that end, we have stepped up our endeavours along key three pillars – continuously improving energy efficiency of operations, increasing the quantum of renewable energy in our energy mix, and replacing fossil fuels with greener and cleaner alternatives – all powered by emerging green technologies. 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.”

The company has procured about 2 billion units of renewable power last year for consumption at its Aluminium Smelter in Jharsuguda, Odisha, thereby reducing GHG emissions intensity at the smelter by more than 1540 KtCO2e (kilo tonnes of CO2 equivalent) in the year.

Vedanta’s Jharsuguda unit has been the country’s largest RE buyer on Green Term Ahead Market (G-TAM) platform at IEX.

The company’s subsidiary Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) has led the RE 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 the year.

“IEX’s Green Market comprising the Day-ahead collective auction market as well as the Term-Ahead Contracts leverages innovation and technology to offer market participants an opportunity to trade in solar and non-solar renewable energy at the most competitive prices, and in a flexible manner. 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,” Rohit Bajaj, Senior Vice President and Head – Business Development, IEX, added.

Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar, MD & CEO – Power Exchange India Ltd (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. PXIL is helping industries achieve their ESG goals through the integration of renewables in the power markets. India Inc’s commitment to ESG and transactional efficiency through power markets will play a critical role in shaping India’s energy future.”