Sriram Ramakrishnan joined Consul Neowatt Power Solutions as managing director and chief executive officer in 2012. “Despite stagnation in the core UPS business due to the economic slowdown and lack of investment in infrastructure, Consul Neowatt has grown at 20-30 per cent annually in the past three years on the back of innovative solutions and reliable pan-Indian services. My key priority is to make Consul Neowatt the number one UPS company in India,” says Ramakrishnan.
Prior to joining Consul, Ramakrishnan worked as executive director at the Sanmar Engineering Corporation and was responsible for its industrial engineered valves business. In the past, he has worked with Eaton Corporation, heading its global business unit focused on data centre solutions, and with GE in R&D, business development and management. Ramakrishnan has four US and European patents in power electronics and magnetics to his credit. An electrical engineer from PSG College of Technology, he also holds a master’s degree in power electronics from the University of Florida and a management degree from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
Commenting on emerging trends in the UPS space, Ramakrishnan says, “The industry is focusing on energy efficient UPS solutions and controlling harmonics in the system. Although LEDs, CFLs and motors operating on variable frequency drives offer huge energy savings, they create electrical pollution by drawing harmonic current. This is increasingly becoming an issue for discoms. The older-generation UPSs operating on six-pulse rectifiers on the input side also produce a lot of harmonics. However, the new UPS technology with IGBT rectifiers focuses on uninterrupted power supply while reducing harmonics consumption.” Ramakrishnan believes India’s T&D infrastructure is undercapitalised, which has led to issues like voltage lag and spike, line noises, brownouts and blackouts. The push to renewables will magnify the problem and hence, investments need to be made in evacuation infrastructure.
Some of Ramakrishnan’s memorable assignments are working on R&D for developing power solutions for satellites at GE, setting up the data centre business at Eaton, starting the power valve business at Sanmar and making Consul a leading UPS company in the country. Ramakrishnan believes in giving opportunities to his team and empowering them. Outside work, he likes to spend time with his family comprising his wife and their two sons.