Vedanta Collaborates With GE To Deploy Digital Smelter Solutions At Its Largest Aluminium Plant The First Such Deployment In India
GE (NYSE: GE) and Vedanta Limited (NSE: VEDL) - Aluminium & Power business, signed an agreement to enforce GEs Digital Smelter solutions at its largest smelter in India at Jharsuguda in Odisha to extensively increase its operational efficiency and productivity. This will be the first such deployment of digital twin technology at any aluminium smelter in India and is part of Vedantas long-term digital transformation initiatives.
The digital twin technology and advanced data analytics being deployed are predicted to considerably minimize particular power consumption at the smelter. Typically, a one-percent discount in particular power consumption based on digital smelter solutions can save about USD 4-5 million yearly in the smelter potlines alone, for every 1 million ton per annum (MTPA) of aluminium production. In addition, this digital solution is predicted to enhance raw material utilization, increase smelter pot life, operational efficiency, safety and minimize wastage.
Aluminium is a metal of strategic significance and it finds applications in key sectors such as aerospace, electrical distribution, construction, transportation etc. Being the biggest producer of aluminium in India, with an extensive value-added product portfolio, this partnership with GE will assist us enhance sustainability and bring in more predictability to our business as we are continuously searching at innovative digital technologies to optimize our business performance levels, stated Ajay Kapur, CEO Aluminium & Power Business, Vedanta Ltd. The application of digital industrial solutions is an excellent chance to accelerate productivity levels to benchmark beating standards.
Commenting on the partnership, Mahesh Palashikar, President & CEO, GE South Asia said, GE has a sturdy history of leadership to enhance competitiveness, effectivity and sustainability for our customers. We are proud to help Vedantas efforts to drive operational excellence throughout its aluminium smelter plants which will consist of advanced data analytics to model plant assets and deliver process advisories to enhance business outcomes. This will set new benchmarks in the industry
GEs Digital Smelter solutions are a huge step in charting the next era of smelting operations globally.
Industrial IoT solutions are turning into mission-critical for industrial companies across the world, stated Bhanu Shekhar, Chief Commercial Officer at GE Digital. By combining machine learning and predictive analytics with the deep domain knowledge of our teams we are assisting clients like Vedantas aluminium business to better operate, analyze and optimize their operations. These predictive insights and process advisories improve operational performance and reduce risks such as unplanned shutdowns, he said. Together with Vedanta we will work on improving asset health and production processes via the application of big data analytics, advanced failure mode analysis and process optimization modeling.
Historical data and real-time data will be processed using data analytics to generate signals and insights which will be shared with plant operators and maintenance teams to assist them execute their duties more effectively and acquire greater business results for the plant. GEs digital solutions use machine learning algorithms to provide more than one outcomes such as pot health/leak alerts, virtual-sensor based dosing recommendations, anode-effect predictions, etc. which are totally data analytics driven and require no additional sensing hardware or infrastructure. GEs suite of Digital Smelter options is being internally developed jointly by GE Digital and GE Global Research Center to address all the elements of such a large-scale operation in the potlines, as well as for the other operational adjacencies that make up the entire smelter plant ecosystem.
Vedanta Limited Aluminium & Power business is Indias largest producer of aluminium with an installed potential of 2.2 MTPA and has an extensive portfolio of value-added aluminium products which are used by a large gamut of core industries.
