Meenal Sutaria
MP Ensystems Advisory Private Ltd
Associate Partner and Director at MP ENSystems Advisory Pvt Limited
Meenal has over two decades of experience in research, design, development, and execution of Climate Action Programs through the lens of Decarbonization, Net Zero and Regenerative Design, Circular Design and Economy, and Social Impact. Meenal is an Associate Partner and Director at MP ENSystems Advisory Pvt Limited, presently working actively to develop the ecosystem for the Decarbonization of Building Sector from a standpoint of energy efficiency, systems efficiency and circularity and spearheading freight and passenger electrification in India and SouthEast Asia.
Meenal has worked extensively in providing solution-based approaches to the critical challenges in the Building Sector, i.e High Performance Building Design, Post Occupancy Modelling, and grid interactiveness. She also works strategically in the Demand Flexibility and Demand Side Management areas. In the past, she has provided strategic leadership and governance to climate action projects as well as organizations. She has a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Mumbai, and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Arizona.
In the past she has served as a Chair of the Faculty Development Programs and the Program Director for the School of Built Environments at Atlas Skill Tech University; where she was the Co Founder of the New Materials Research Center (NMRC). NMRC provides a platform to discuss the issues of sustainability through the lens of new material design and material systems that are practiced in local, national, and global societies. It promotes Circularity in design economies using practice-based research or research by making which is at the intersection of design, science, and Ecology.
All Sessions by Meenal Sutaria
Executive Dialogue 4 – Creating 10GW market for Demand Flexibility by 2030
New DelhiLaunch of the whitepaper titled "Customer Engagement – A tool for Utility driven for Utility Demand Side Management."
Session Brief: The increasing share of renewables in India’s grid power and proliferation of decentralized power generation has created the need for demand flexibility, amongst other solutions for cost-effective renewable grid integration. While demand-side management is not a new concept for India, demand flexibility to support renewable integration and decarbonization is relatively new and is limited to small-scale pilots in a few states. Distribution utilities must also purchase expensive electricity to meet critical peak demand. The Central Electricity Authority projects the country’s peak demand to grow from 203 GW to 366 GW between 2021-22 and 2031-32. The reforms in the wholesale power market, bringing ancillary services into the market, increasing proliferation of smart meters, and smart grid technologies make demand flexibility feasible in important demand sectors such as buildings that have a share of more than 30% in India’s electricity consumption. Buildings with new energy technologies have the potential to interact with the grid rather than only passively drawing power from the grid. Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) have a holistically optimised blend of energy efficiency, energy storage, renewable energy, and load flexibility technologies enabled through smart controls and building occupants’ behaviour.
The session will discuss the strategies and way forward for the Indian grid to scale-up demand flexibility measures and create an ecosystem for demand flexibility. The session will discuss the technology and infrastructure needed for demand flexibility which also has the potential to enhance grid resilience, regulatory reforms and business models to establish and accelerate the market for demand flexibility in India.