Indian aluminum producer Vedanta Aluminium Business announced that it has become India’s largest industrial consumer of renewable energy.

The company led renewable energy procurement on India’s power exchanges like Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).

In 2021, the company procured around 2 billion units of renewable energy for consumption at its aluminum smelter in Jharsuguda, Odisha. Its Jharsuguda unit is India’s largest renewable energy procurer on the Green Term-Ahead Market at IEX. The procurement helped reduce more than 1,540 kilotons of greenhouse gas emissions at the smelter in 2021.

The company said its subsidiary Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) led the renewable energy trading session and procured 59% of the traded renewable energy certificates in November 2021 and a total of over 2,861,700 renewable energy certificates in the year.

Commenting on the company’s environment, social, and governance (ESG) vision, Rahul Sharma, Chief Executive Officer – Aluminium Business, Vedanta Limited, said, “We are committed to our vision of achieving net-zero carbon by 2050. To that end, we have stepped up our endeavors along three key 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 clear alternatives – all powered by emerging green technologies. Becoming India’s largest industrial consumer of renewable energy in 2021 reflects our endeavors to increase the share of green power in our energy mix and accelerate our transition into low-carbon operations.”

In December 2021, IEX traded 365 million units (MU) of renewable energy, a 20.13% month-over-month (MoM) decline compared to 457 MU in November.

In 2020, Vedanta Limited issued a request for proposal (RfP) to install 100 MW of solar projects in the Jharsuguda district of Odisha. Mercom had earlier reported that Vedanta Limited issued a notice inviting expressions of interest to develop the captive solar photovoltaic project with a minimum capacity of 20 MW and a maximum of 50 MW in Rajasthan.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Open Access Market Report, in Q2 2021, 955 million units (MU) of energy were traded in GTAM. In June, the market traded the highest volume of 412 MU at ₹3.73 (~$0.05)/kWh. The energy trading prices in GTAM declined around 15% from ₹4.35 (~$0.06)/kWh in April to ₹3.73 (~$0.05)/kWh in June.