CIF’s Accelerating Coal Transition Workshop

Mr. Yatin Premchand has 22 years of experience in consultative business development, commercialization, and scale-up of clean technologies, with a keen understanding of related policy and regulation advisory globally backed by a degree in Environmental Science and Business.

He is a strategic specialist in Asia and the Pacific across public and private sectors, including finance, with successive achievements in de-risking investment and project development, technology diligence and transfer.

Shri Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya is an Electrical Engineering Graduate from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and a PG Diploma in Management from MDI, Gurgaon.

He started his career in Green Field Project Construction followed by working in the areas of Power Plant Operation & Maintenance, Renovation & Modernization, Environment Management, Technical Services at 1600 MW Farakka STPP. After serving in Farakka in various departments, he moved to Talcher Thermal Power Station (450 MW), an Old and Underperforming asset, taken over from State Electricity Board. He, along with his team, created history in turning around the station, which went on to become a top performing station in years to come. He has, thereafter, significantly contributed for NTPC’s vertical & horizontal business diversification as well as growth through inorganic route. He has had an illustrious career in Business Development function of NTPC in Domestic as well as International Arena with special focus on NTPC’s diversification into hydroelectricity with acquisition of Koldam and setting up of subsidiary company NESCL for electricity distribution business. He has been at the forefront of JV formulation, Project conceptualization, and on ground implementation for 1320 MW Maitree Power Project at Bangladesh. Prior to taking over the position of Director (Projects), he has worked as MD and CEO of BIFPCL (Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Limited), ED (Business Development) and ED(Projects), NTPC.He is directly responsible for entire portfolio of Engineering, Projects, R&D, Dispute resolution cell and International Business Development (IBD) activities, as functional Director of these important verticals of NTPC. Apart from being a Board member in NTPC board, he is also Chairman in PVUNL (Patratu Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited) & NGSL (JV between NTPC and GE), Vice Chairman in HURL (Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan limited), and Director on the Boards of THDCIL and NEEPCO.

Mr. Arifin is currently Executive Vice President of Engineering and Technology of PLN, Indonesia.

His main responsibility is engineering planning and study, technology foresight, standardization, and in-house innovation. Zainal is the Team leader of PLN Smart Grid implementation (from 2016). He is also a senior lecturer at the Power and Renewable Energy graduate program of Institut Teknologi PLN and the Energy System Engineering graduate program of Universitas Indonesia. Zainal received a BSC in Mechanical Engineering from Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) Indonesia in 1994. He earned his MBA in Operation Management in 2010 from the University of Missouri – St Louis (UMSL), USA, and a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Universitas Indonesia in 2016.He is a Board Member of the Global Smart Energy Federation, Indonesia Electricity Power Society, and Indonesia Strategic Management Society. He is also a member of IEEE Technology and Management Society.

Harry Harji is an Associate Vice President at Black & Veatch, and leads Black and Veatch Management Consulting business for Asia, India, Middle East and Africa.

He has over 30 years of management consulting experience in the Power, Finance, O&G and Telecommunications industry. Prior to working at Black & Veatch, Harry worked for industry leaders, including Accenture, Orange Mobile, and Schlumberger. He has extensive international experience through traveling, working, and living worldwide, thus enabling him to quickly adapt to diverse business methodologies, easily work across multicultural boundaries, and effectively manage multicultural teams. Harry brings a comprehensive approach to new business concept definitions, strategic business planning and client facing project and program management.

Mr. Pitakteeratham joined Banpu groups since 2007 with power business unit. He is involved in technical assignment for coal-fired power plants and renewable power plants in various stages of the projects/assets such as project development, construction, operating performance management and asset acquisition across Banpu group operating countries.

His past positions included Head of Asset and Engineering Management. Aside from technical assignment, his recent task is to set up success profile of technical related for BPP employees and set up of Operation team in Vietnam.

Debabrata leads the power systems planning group at the World Bank in Washington DC.

He had held a tenure-track position at University of Canterbury until late 2000 and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland and University of Melbourne (Australia). Deb has been in a full-time consulting role from 2001-2012 as a Director with Charles River Associates (2001-2009) and Deloitte Australia.

Abhishek Bhaskar is a Senior Energy Specialist at the Climate Investment Funds. He is the Team Lead of CIF Technical Assistance Facility focusing on clean energy investments.

With previous jobs at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the World Bank, Abhishek has a over a decade of clean energy/ climate finance experience working on blended finance, green bonds, compliance grade carbon assets, climate metrics and regulatory frameworks. He holds Masters’ degrees in Economics and Finance.