Vedanta Aluminium is India’s largest industrial RE consumer in 2021

Vedanta Aluminium Business on Thursday claimed that it has become India’s largest industrial consumer of renewable energy (RE) in 2021 by procuring around 2 billion units for consumption at its aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda, Odisha, The mining conglomerate procured RE from power exchanges – Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India (PXIL). It helped the company cut down on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity at its smelter by more than 1540 KtCO2e (kilo tonnes of CO2 equivalent) in the year, the company said in a statement. Vedanta Aluminium’s Jharsuguda unit is India’s largest renewable energy buyer on the 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 the year, it 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,” IEX VP and Head (Business Development) Rohit Bajaj said. PXIL MD & CEO Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar 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”. The company’s aluminium division produced 1.97 million tonnes of metal in FY21. The Jharsuguda unit has 1.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) smelting capacity and contributes 37 per cent of India’s aluminium production, with high-quality aluminium and value-added aluminium products.