Aluminium - A key contributor to India's electrification journey

For India to realize its vision of achieving the 5 trillion dollar-mark as an economy, green, robust and affordable energy is of quintessential importance. With a steeply increasing slope of population, wages and living standards, India, as per the IEA, stands third in energy consumption in the world. Especially in the post-pandemic phase, India's return to normalcy is certain to be a prolific journey in terms of its energy-based capacity-building technologies. Sustainable power production (reduction in carbon footprint of thermal power generation), increasing production of renewables, ubiquitous energy accessibility, transmission & distribution infrastructure, and systematized quality control mechanisms will play a crucial role in this journey.
Aluminium is the metal of the future especially for the power sector, for it boasts of high strength while being lighter in weight, excellence thermal and electrical conductivity, high ductility and malleability, and exceptional design flexibility. These properties make aluminium the choice of metal in applications like cables, transmission lines, motors, capacitors, heating elements and others. In fact, aluminium wire rods are the primary choice for long-distance transmission lines. India is second only to China in the consumption of aluminium wire rods, with Vedanta Aluminium as the global leader of aluminium wire rod production (ex-China). In India, average per capita consumption of aluminium in electrical industry if roughly 1 kg compared to the world average of 1.5 kgs.