With nearly two decades of experience in the power sector, Pranay Mundra’s knowledge spans across feasibility assessment, contract and vendor management, project execution and project management. The initial part of his career was spent working in the power transmission domain. During this time, he worked with Sterlite Power for about seven years. He then moved to the renewable energy industry, joining Suzlon Energy, where he looked after infrastructure development across India. When the company diversified into solar in 2014, Mundra got involved in business development, project execution and operations.
After nearly 10 years at Suzlon Energy, Mundra joined Gensol Engineering as president. In this role, he is involved in transforming Gensol from a pure solar company to a renewable energy solutions provider by diversifying into areas like wind and energy storage. He is also focusing on international business development.
With technology advancements and declining equipment prices, Mundra is optimistic about the renewable energy sector, which, in his view, has become a good alternative to thermal power. He believes that with the global push towards renewable energy, what is being witnessed in India is just the start of a shift towards clean energy. A strong advocate of energy storage solutions, he says, “It makes more economic sense to set up energy storage integrated solar plants locally in remote areas than install transmission lines to supply power from a far-off location. The challenge with energy storage in India is that the industry is still at a nascent stage with a lack of proper energy management systems that can take care of a combination of dynamic loads as well as intermittent generation patterns of renewables.”
With a vision of making Gensol an end-to-end renewable energy solutions provider, Mundra’s roadmap for the company is to strengthen its consulting and engineering expertise to become a leader in India as well as the Middle East and Africa. The company is also aiming to achieve more growth in the operations and maintenance domain, and to explore artificial intelligence.
His most memorable assignment was developing a 210 MW solar project in Telangana. His involvement in every aspect of the project, right from site identification to commissioning, gave him a lot of satisfaction. Mundra is an electrical engineer with an MBA in marketing. His management style is focused on proper planning and organisation with a strict adherence to deadlines. Mundra likes to spend his spare time with his family and engaging in physical activity.