Pankaj Batra is the Project Director, South Asia Regional Initiative in Energy Integration & Ex-Chairperson Central Electricity Authority of India. He has over 35 years’ experience in all aspects of the power sector in India with about 4 years’ experience of the power sector in South Asia. He is currently Project Director & Chief of Party, USAID’s SARI/EI (South Asia Regional Initiative in Energy Integration) program. 

His expertise is in setting Policy and Regulatory, Standards in the Power Sector in India. He is also an expert in Power sector Reforms. Energy Transition, including sector efficiency, transition to Renewables, Electric Vehicles, Smart Grid. Demand forecasting, Generation Planning, Grid management, Standard Bidding Documents. Operation & Maintenance of hydro power plants. He has strong experience as a System Operator in SAARC and BIMSTEC countries and all aspects of Cross border trade in electricity in the BBINS (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) countries, including harmonization of policies and regulations, advancing transmission interconnections and creation of regional power markets. He has also handled proposals of funding of transmission interconnections, fixing of tariff and philosophy of sharing of transmission charges of interconnectors.

As Project Director & Chief of Party, USAID’s SARI/EI (South Asia

Regional Initiative in Energy Integration) program being implemented by IRADe (Integrated Research and Action for Development), a reputed think tank in India, he is dealing in Energy & Power Systems, Climate Change and Environment,

Sustainable Development, Poverty Alleviation and Gender, Agriculture and Food Security, etc.

As Chairperson and CEO of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the technical arm of the Ministry of Power, Govt. of India he was responsible for overall development of the Indian power system including Hydro, Thermal and Renewable Power as well as the Transmission & Distribution System of the country.

As Member (Planning) and ex-officio Additional Secretary to the Government of India he oversaw various policy and planning functions, including Electric Power Survey Report on long term demand forecasting, National Electricity Plan on generation planning, coal and gas supply to power stations, renewable sources of energy, etc.

As Chief (Engineering) in Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) he formulated various technical and tariff Regulations, including various provisions related to wind and solar power in the revised Indian Electricity Grid Code, Connectivity Regulations, Power Market Regulations, etc.

As Director, Grid Management in the CEA Headquarters, he framed the regulations of CEA on Technical Standards for Connectivity to the Grid and regulations on Grid Standards. Started the Division on Regulatory Affairs in CEA.

He has held other important positions such as Member Secretary of the Government Task Force on Peaking Power Plants and Creation of Adequate System Reserves, Member Secretary of the Government Task Force on Integration of electricity from Renewable Energy sources in the Grid, Member of the Committee of Ministry of Power for formulation of Model Smart Grid Regulations. He has been actively involved in the finalization of the Tariff Policy with the Minister of Power, Secretary, Power and other officers of the Ministry of Power, Government of India. He has been Member Secretary of the Committee formulated by the Ministry of Power on revision of the National Electricity Policy. He has been Chairperson of the Technical Committee On Study of Optimal Location of Various Types of Balancing Energy Sources/Energy Storage Devices to Facilitate Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Sources and Associated Issues. He has also been Chairperson of the Committee on preparing an approach paper for charging of electric vehicles including the facility, institutional arrangement and identification of regulatory interventions, if any.

He is currently the Chairperson of Working Group 4 on “Policy, Regulation and Business Models” in the India Smart Grid Forum, Chairperson of the BIS Committee of LITD 10 – “Power System Control and Associated Communication”, Chairperson of the BIS Committee for making technical Standards on Grid Scale Storage. He has finalized a number of standards, including the first ever global standard on Battery Management System.

He has been: 

→ Member of the Core Group of India Energy Transformation Platform (IETP), conceptualized by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) & Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF).

→ Member of the expert group of Niti Aayog for Energy Sector Vision Document.

→ Member of the Consultative Group of Niti Aayog to discuss Decarbonization Strategy for Indian Economy

→ President, International Association on Electricity Generation, Transmission and Distribution (Afro-Asian Region)

→ Member of the Advisory Board of Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP), and various other Advisory Boards.

→ Member of the Task Force on Principles of Interconnectors under the Green Grids Initiative co-chaired by the Prime Ministers of India and UK.

→ Independent Director in the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd.