Vedanta Lanjigarh deploys advanced Energy Management System for enhanced energy efficiency

3rd April 2024

The alumina refinery is leveraging data to reduce emissions and enable energy efficient processes

Lanjigarh, Kalahandi District, Odisha, 03 April 2024 – Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh, India’s premier producer of smelter grade alumina and a unit of Vedanta Aluminium, recently launched an advanced Energy Management System across its power plant. It will help monitor the energy performance parameters of 120 critical electrical assets, thereby enhancing energy efficiency levels across the plant. The initiative is a notable digitalization effort that will result in enhanced functional optimization and increased automation of the refinery operations.

The Energy Management System is a crucial component within manufacturing industries to ensure systematic monitoring, analysis, control, and optimization of critical assets. It is an integrated setup that monitors the optimal energy distribution and reliability of various critical equipment and comes with trigger systems to check for any unexpected deviations, while providing quality checks and energy improvement recommendations, leading to overall energy efficiency. Leveraging a data-driven approach, the system is executed through a central database, ensuring end-to-end consolidation of the entire refinery’s operations.

The alumina refining process has significant energy requirements, which are primarily fulfilled by a captive co-generation power plant. Implementing advanced, automated, and data-driven processes such as the Energy Management System increases operational efficiency and leads to significant GHG (Green House Gas) emissions reduction. Through its focus on the adoption of innovative and leading technologies, the company reaffirms its commitment to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2050 or sooner, as part of its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Pranab Kumar Bhattacharyya, CEO – Alumina Business, Vedanta Ltd said, “Our pursuit of operations excellence is deeply rooted in a sustainable business model. Through initiatives such as Energy Management Systems, we are committed towards bolstering our energy efficiency. In an industry that requires an uninterrupted supply of energy, we are integrating cleaner and more sustainable energy systems to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, thereby shaping a prosperous and sustainable future for all.”

Vedanta’s alumina refinery has achieved several recognitions for its energy efficiency initiatives under several Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) circles as well as from Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India. The awards were in recognition of its energy efficient performance, utilizing renewable energy sources, and energy utilization improvements through in-depth analysis.

Vedanta Aluminium has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050 or sooner by adopting a two-fold strategy of reducing its carbon footprint by increasing operational excellence and enhancing the quantum of renewables in its energy mix, while also offsetting its carbon footprint through extensive afforestation efforts. Through its operations, the company is enabling wider global access to responsibly produced, high-quality aluminium to ensure a greener future for the planet. The key milestones achieved by the company in this journey are:

Reducing GHG emissions intensity by ~8% in FY23 over the FY21 baseline while increasing production by ~16%
Recycling over 15 billion litres of water across its operations during FY24
Achieving a noteworthy 11% reduction in water withdrawal from freshwater sources
Significant freshwater usage savings of 1.5 million cubic meters
Doubling waste utilization to 200% in FY23, boosting circular economy avenues
Collaborating on over 60 rural community water bodies restoration projects

Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.37 million tonnes in FY24. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry, a reflection of its leading sustainable development practices. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.

About Vedanta Limited:

Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa and Namibia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing significantly to nation building. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment. Vedanta has put in place a comprehensive framework to be the ESG leader in the natural resources sector. Vedanta is committed to reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 or sooner and has pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate the transition to net zero operations. Giving back is in the DNA of Vedanta, which is focused on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company’s flagship social impact program, Nand Ghars, have been set up as model anganwadis focused on eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare, and empowering women with skill development. Under the aegis of the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the umbrella entity for Vedanta’s social initiatives, the Vedanta group has pledged Rs 5000 crore over the next five years on social impact programmes with a thrust on nutrition, women & child development, healthcare, animal welfare, and grass-root level sports. Vedanta and the group companies have been featured in Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and was conferred Frost & Sullivan Sustainability Awards 2020, Golden Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Governance 2022 and certified as a Great Place to Work 2022. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

For more information, please visit www.vedantalimited.com

About Vedanta Aluminium Business:

For more information, please log on to www.vedantaaluminium.com

Disclaimer:

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “should” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Press Releases