Parveen Nanda has more than 33 years of experience in the power sector, with 28 years in hydropower and over five years in hybrid renewable energy. He is currently senior vice-president, Greenko Group. He joined the private power major in 2012.
At Greenko, Nanda is responsible for Project Management & Engineering of the group’s hydro projects. Prior to Greenko, Nanda worked with Himachal Sorang Power Private Limited, Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited and the Directorate of Energy, Himachal Pradesh. He has significant expertise in areas such as project management, procurement, engineering, strategic planning, construction management and business development. He has worked on more than 20 hydro projects and an equal number of solar and wind projects, at various stages of implementation from concept to commissioning.
According to Nanda, the four basic needs for the sector today are a growing requirement for firm and despatchable renewable energy, an emerging need for “energy shifting”, greater viability of energy storage for “transmission infrastructure deferment”, and add-on financials through grid management via ancillary services.
He notes that there is a consensus on the urgent need for energy storage and discussions are under way on optimal storage business models. But while storage integrated with renewable energy has been introduced, policy-makers and regulators need to turn their attention to “ahead of the meter” applications for sustainable despatchable renewables and storage market development. Attention is also needed for the creation of “aatmanirbhar” energy storage capacity using indigenous off-stream PSP technology. In this regard, issues relating to policy and regulation, business models, bidding parameters and clearance requirements need to be addressed.
On the company’s portfolio and plans, Nanda says Greenko has a current and near-term operational portfolio of 6.4 GW, of which solar constitutes 2.2 GW, wind 2.3 GW and hydro 1.8 GW. Further, 22 GW of projects with over 100 GWh of storage capabilities are in the pipeline for the next 10 years. These projects, which were initially perceived as PSPs, are now being converted to integrated projects. Five of these, with 10 GW of potential, are on a fast-track and are expected to be started for implementation within a year.
Nanda is a graduate in engineering from NIT, Allahabad, and a postgraduate from NIT, Kurukshetra.