Vedanta Aluminium Business became India's largest green power purchaser on the Green Market at the Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) platform in Q1 FY 21-22. For its largest integrated aluminium production facility at Jharsuguda, in Odisha, Vedanta procured 354 million units of solar and non-solar renewable energy primarily from Green Term-Ahead Market (GTAM) at IEX.
IEX is a premiere energy marketplace and is the largest power exchange in the country. GTAM, introduced last year by IEX, supports buyers in procuring green energy in the most competitive and flexible manner. The purchase of green power from the exchange has enabled organisations like Vedanta and the industry at large to achieve their carbon-mitigation targets while producing ‘green' value-added products. Vedanta Aluminium's purchase of green power units is more than 35 per cent of the green power traded on IEX in Q1 FY22.
The company's energy stewardship manifests itself through a two-pronged strategy - a sharp focus on attaining highest efficiency of assets and processes for excellent energy management, and a roadmap towards carbon neutrality that includes adopting the right mix of feasible avenues for increasing consumption share of green energy. Case in point, Vedanta Aluminium bagged three Gold Awards at the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM) National Energy Management Awards 2020 for outstanding energy performance by its Aluminium Smelters I & II and Captive Power Plant at Jharsuguda. Vedanta's Smelter-I at Jharsuguda and Alumina Refinery at Lanjigarh, also bagged ‘First Prize' each at the prestigious National Energy Conservation Awards 2020 (NECA 2020) by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Government of India. An Alumina Refinery is a plant where bauxite (the ore of aluminum) undergoes refining to produce aluminum oxide or alumina, and an Aluminum Smelter is a plant where alumina undergoes electrolytic reduction to produce pure aluminum.
Speaking about Vedanta's approach towards carbon mitigation, Mr. Rahul Sharma, CEO - Vedanta Aluminium Business said, "Our sustainability imperatives are designed to fulfil our climate impact reduction targets, which are in complete alignment with the goals of Paris Agreement and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) submitted by the Government of India. To that end, our efforts have been towards adopting global best-practises in energy management and deploying advanced technologies to reduce our carbon footprint. Our long-term strategy focuses on migrating to low carbon energy mix, with gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, to produce green aluminium."
Appreciating Vedanta Aluminium's green energy stewardship, Mr. Rohit Bajaj, Senior Vice President & Head-Business Development, IEX, said, "At IEX, our constant focus has been to build a customer centric energy marketplace leveraging innovation and technology towards building India as a sustainable and efficient energy economy. The Green Term-Ahead Market offers the market participants an opportunity to trade in delivery based solar and non-solar renewable energy at the most competitive prices in a flexible manner. The market segment has been operational for over a year now and has received splendid response from industries, especially the energy intensive ones as well as the distribution utilities.
