Vedanta Aluminium ranks India’s largest industrial consumer of renewable energy in 2021

Renewable energy, which is commonly referred to as clean energy, as it is derived from natural sources or processes that are continuously replenished, for instance, sunlight keeps shining and the wind keeps blowing, even though their obtainability banks on time and weather.

The biggest aluminium producer and VAP maker of India, Vedanta’s Aluminium business has ranked as the largest industrial consumer of renewable energy (RE) in 2021, leading renewable energy procurement on India’s power exchanges – Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).

The Indian commodity tycoon, Anil Agarwal led Vedanta Aluminium procured about 2 billion units of RE power in the year 2021 for consumption at its aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda, Odisha. Consequently, it contracted GHG emissions magnitude at the smelter by more than 1540 KtCO2e (kilo tonnes of CO2 equivalent) in the year. The Jharsuguda aluminium smelter of Vedanta is India’s biggest renewable energy buyer on Green Term Ahead Market (G-TAM) platform at IEX.

Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), the subsidiary of Vedanta has ushered the renewable energy trading session, procuring 59% of the traded RE certificates (RECs) in November 2021 alone and a total of over 2,861,700 RECs in the year.

Rahul Sharma, the chief executive of Vedanta’s Aluminium business, commented on the company’s ESG vision, “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 the 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.”

Rohit Bajaj, the Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development for IEX said, “Indian Energy Exchange’s (IEX) 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.”

Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar, the managing director and chief executive of Power Exchange India Ltd. (PXIL), stated, “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. Power Exchange India Ltd. (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.”