Ritika Thakur currently works in the strategy and growth division at Honeywell, focused on building and scaling offerings that support the energy transition. Her academic foundation blends rigorous engineering with global business training. She studied at IIT Delhi and later pursued an MBA at INSEAD. Over the years, she has built a distinctive cross-sector perspective through stints in top-tier consulting and energy firms, including roles at McKinsey and Shell, before moving into her current work at the intersection of technology, commercial strategy and customer outcomes.
What excites her most about her current role is the opportunity to take high-impact, real-world problems and convert them into solutions that can scale – combining hardware, software and domain depth to create measurable value for customers. She is particularly energised by the pace of change in the sector: rapid renewable buildout, evolving grid needs, and a clear shift from “monitoring” to true optimisation and orchestration.
From her experience, integrating storage with solar changes both lifecycle operations and maintenance (O&M) costs and the very way “availability” is defined. On the O&M side, storage introduces additional subsystems and operational disciplines, such as battery enclosures, HVAC/thermal management, BMS, PCS, safety and fire systems, and higher control and cybersecurity requirements. This typically expands the preventive maintenance scope, spares strategy, compliance and safety procedures, and the skill profile required at the site. In practical terms, baseline O&M costs may rise versus solar-only plants, and processes must become more rigorous because the consequences of faults can be higher.
According to her, storage can materially improve delivered performance and system resilience. With the right controls and operating practices, storage can smooth variability, support ramp management, provide ride-through during grid disturbances, and help meet scheduling and despatch commitments. As a result, the “availability” discussion moves beyond equipment uptime to dependable, grid-aligned output and commercial performance. The winning approach is disciplined asset management – strong monitoring, early fault detection, clear warranty governance and long-term augmentation planning.
Thakur aims to lead with clarity, consistency and trust, while staying grounded in real constraints on the ground. She is outcomes-led, expects high ownership, and prefers empowering teams with context and decision rights rather than micromanaging. She also values coaching and feedback, and believes the best teams are built by combining high standards with psychological safety.
