Vedanta Aluminium banking on Smart Technology and Digital Solutions to sustain production amid COVID

Vedanta Aluminium & Power Business has accelerated the use of cutting-edge technologies and digital solutions to protect the workforce against the COVID-19 and sustain production to meet India’s needs for aluminium. The news came after Vedanta said that it integrated the best-in-class digital solutions in operations to build efficiencies and optimise costs and raw material consumptions for becoming the world’s leading producer of the ‘Green Metal’ aluminium.

Vedanta said,  "Implementation of automation and digitalization solutions at its plants have enabled the company to produce high-quality aluminium and value-added products for critical industry sectors, while also providing a step-change in health, safety & environment (HSE) performance parameters.”

Ajay Kapur, CEO of Aluminium & Power and MD of Commercial at Vedanta Limited, said: “Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in India last year, we have fast-tracked adoption of best-in-class digital technologies, intelligent automation and inhouse innovations to safeguard our workforce across Aluminium & Power Business Units.”

Some of the technologies used by Vedanta include: Digital Smelter Solution at Jharsuguda smelter, which uses digital twin technology for human-less monitoring and controlling potline operations; Digital collaboration platforms with advanced functionalities to enable seamless connectivity between employees, service providers, and customers; Telemedicine facility for communities at Vedanta’s hospital in Lanjigarh and Balco (Chhattisgarh) for e-consultation; First-in-the-industry Deep Learning algorithms and various advanced model techniques; Advanced data analytics in power plants for predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Other technologies deployed by Vedanta include: OSI soft’s PI (Process Information) System implemented at Jharsuguda plant, Digital Logistics Control Towers for coal, alumina and bauxite uses classical Machine Learning, The Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and Robotics Process Automation (RPA).

Vedanta has vaccinated over 7,500 of its people across the plants and augmented the capacity of its COVID Care Centres and quarantine centres. It is also supporting local district administrations in its areas of operation by providing testing kits, medicines, and oxygen/oxygen cylinders.