Dr Rahul Walawalkar is President & MD of Customized Energy Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. He leads the Emerging Technologies practice for Customized Energy Solutions globally with focus on energy storage, renewables, demand response, electric vehicles and smart grid technologies. Rahul is the Founder and Executive Director of India Energy Storage Alliance since 2012. He served as Board Member for Energy Storage Association, USA during 2009-15 and currently serves as Vice Chair for Global Energy Storage Alliance. In 2014, he was nominated as part of Standing Committee on Energy Storage and Hybrid systems by MNRE and is currently working on drafting the national energy storage mission. He served as member of national taskforce for renewable integration by Central Electricity Authority & Ministry of Power during 2013-14. Under Rahul’s leadership Customized energy solutions has received various awards including IPPAI Power Innovation Award for creation of India Energy Storage Alliance in 2016-17, Brad Roberts Award for outstanding industry contribution by Energy Storage Association (USA) in 2016, USAID’s PACEsetter Fund Award for MICRO initiative in 2016 and CII Innovative Energy Services Award for Tata Power Demand Response program in 2012. He was recognized with India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) President’s Award in 2018 for outstanding contribution to growth of smart grids in India. He is also recipient of Energy Storage Crusader Award from Renewable Energy India Expo in 2017, DSK Energy Award from Institution of Engineers in 2014 and Computer Society of India’s Young IT Professional Award for 2000 and 2001. Rahul holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, M.S. in Energy Management from NYIT and B.E. from Walchand College of Engineering.

Vinod founded Emergent Ventures India (EVI) and has led its growth from 2004, to becoming a leading service provide in Climate Change, Sustainability and Renewable deployment with a service foot print across 28 + countries. EVI has been involved with 15 GW+ of renewable energy projects since inception.

Vinod has carried out pioneering work in the area of Carbon Finance, launch of Renewable Aggregators, development of Energy Storage Roadmap, Smart Grids Wind Solar Hybrids etc.

He has also been involved in promoting Innovative business models to support grid interactive solar irrigation, utility anchored solar roof top aggregation, smart meter deployment etc. and Financing Instruments such as Green Bonds, specialized Credit Lines, Guarantee Funds etc.

Vinod is an Engineer with Post Graduation in Management from IIM Ahmedabad.