Sandeep Dhamija is a seasoned power distribution professional with over 21 years of rich experience in business development, business transformation, change management, BPR, technology deployment, consulting and project management.
He has been extensively involved with key transformation projects at the Tata Power group, including the privatisation of the Delhi and Odisha discoms in 2002 and 2020 respectively. As chief technology officer, he led technology transformation at Tata Power Southern Odisha. As part of business development, he acquired key businesses for Tata Power, including the recent acquisition of four discoms in Odisha. He has also led the consulting business for Tata Power, with projects across several discoms in India and globally.
He is currently working as the chief executive officer of TP Power Plus (a wholly owned subsidiary of TATA Power). One of the key initiatives he is overseeing is the smart metering project in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, covering 1.86 million consumers.
According to Dhamija, the power sector in India is going through interesting times, with more focus on renewables and growth in the transmission sector. The future looks exciting because of evolving technologies, especially hydrogen fuel.
However, he maintains that on the distribution side, a lot more needs to be done to improve discom health. While the national smart metering project under the RDSS is a good initiative, it may not be sufficient for transforming loss-making discoms. Long pending reforms such as separation of content and carriage will bring in more competition and push discoms towards further improvement and sustenance. Dhamija highlights that the transition of power distribution is a key challenge yet to
be resolved. Among his various roles, Dhamija’s current assignment of leading the smart metering business is very special.
Dhamija believes in building organisational capability by assigning the right resources to the right place. Communication, monitoring and motivation are key principles followed by him. He believes in delegation and supporting the team in accomplishing business objectives. He gives due focus to building leaders and good teams that can take decisions.
Dhamija holds an MBA in Power Management from the National Power Training Institute.