The Indian power sector has undergone a major transformation – from being energy deficient to being self-sufficient. Now, it is overwhelming to see the energy matrix shift towards clean energy,” remarks Deepak Thakur, chief executive officer (CEO), Hybrid and Energy Storage, Sterling and Wilson. He believes that the country is well on track to meet its objective of increasing the share of renewable energy in the overall electricity generation mix, thereby delivering on its international climate change commitments. However, grid integration challenges persist, which can be partly mitigated by adopting energy storage solutions.
“Energy storage is crucial for grid integration, balancing of variable generation sources and other ancillary services. By increasing the system’s overall flexibility, these solutions can help improve frequency regulation across the grid, manage peak demand, enhance the capacity of the distribution/transmission grids, and avoid deviation penalties,” Thakur explains.
Thakur is spearheading the hybrid and energy storage business at Sterling and Wilson, a company engaged in engineering, construction, manufacturing and energy services. He has over 26 years of experience across domains like sales, marketing, corporate strategy and business planning in sectors including infrastructure, energy, industrial products and electronics. During this period, he has scaled up new businesses and built robust teams delivering sustainable growth. Prior to Sterling and Wilson, he worked with the Mahindra Group, Larsen & Toubro, Honeywell and Thermax.
Amongst his most memorable assignments was the one in which he successfully led the solar heating and cooling business in the initial years of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). This entailed technology development and commercialisation during the JNNSM’s initial adoption phase. “Owing to my passion for renewables, I wish to replicate the same at Sterling and Wilson with my team, since I believe that energy storage today is at the same threshold as solar was in 2009,” says Thakur.
On the personal front, Thakur says he loves writing poetry, besides watching movies, listening to music and reading in his spare time. Some of his favourite reads are Good to Great by James C. Collins and Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch. Thakur also wants to go on a backpacking trip some day to Latin America.