Alcoa Corp. recently completed the $47 million upgrade of its Deschambault aluminum smelter’s electrical infrastructure.
Upgrades are expected to improve operations by increasing stability and efficiency and boosting production.
Work included adding a third electrical transformer to provide more amperage to the smelting pots and enabling increased metal production, and upgrading environmental equipment to allow the plant to maintain environmental compliance.
“Through continuous improvement, we have been able to economically increase the capabilities of many of our assets, and this capital project at Deschambault should help us meet the strong demand we’re seeing for sustainably produced aluminum,” John Slaven, Alcoa executive vice president and chief operations officer, said.
The facility is located in Quebec, Canada. The Canadian government’s Strategic Innovation Fund contributed $7.8 million toward the project.
In addition to Deschambault, Alcoa operates two other smelters in Canada. The three facilities have been certified to Aluminium Stewardship Initiative standards, the industry’s most comprehensive, third-party system to verify responsible production, and set annual production records last year.
The facilities are powered by renewable hydroelectricity and have a consolidated nameplate capacity of 946,000 metric tons per year (mtpy). Deschambault’s nameplate capacity is 287,000 mtpy.
The facility is an Alcoa’s Aluminum Center of Excellence.