NALCO bags energy conservation award
By IANSTuesday, December 14, 2010
BHUBANESWAR - State-owned National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) bagged a top prize for efficient utilisation and conservation of energy, the company said Tuesday.
The company bagged the first prize at the National Energy Conservation Awards-2010 in New Delhi. This award is given by the power ministry to the energy-intensive units which have achieved efficient energy utilization and conservation.
Company chairman and managing director A.K. Srivastava received the award from Power Minister Sushil in New Delhi Tuesday, the company said in a statement.
In the aluminium industry, power and fuel costs account for about 38 percent of the total production cost. Being among the low cost producers of aluminium in the world, NALCOs prices serve as an international benchmark.
In this context, NALCO has been assigning high importance to energy conservation and has been utilizing the state-of-the art technologies for maximizing energy efficiency, the statement said.
In 2009-10, the company which has its headquarters at Bhubaneswar undertook major cost saving and energy efficiency improvement projects at its smelter plant and achieved an annual energy savings of Rs. 15.58 crore on fuel oil and energy consumption, it said.
Besides upgradation of energy efficient infrastructures, the annual energy savings are partly attributed to innovative cost saving approaches and solutions that were taken up through various process improvement teams and quality circles, it said.
Most importantly, many of these quality improvement projects that are contributing towards reduction of energy costs were developed in-house with the active participation of the employees, it said.
