Join us for a celebration of PES Day 2021 to hear a presentation by

Niru Prakash Kumar

Niru obtained an undergraduate degree in power systems engineering
from University of Mysore, India. After working for IT consulting
companies, she decided to move to the U.S. and further her interests in
power systems engineering. She finished her MS in Energy Systems from
the University of Washington in Seattle and went on to work with
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a Dept. of Energy run National
Laboratory. Her research interests included effective demand response
techniques to improve energy efficiency. She completed her MBA from
Cornell University last summer where she was recognized both as an
‘Environmental Finance and Impact Investing Fellow’ as well as
an 'Emerging Markets Fellow’. Her interests now include the most cost
effective methods of making technology accessible to the base of the
pyramid. She also works as a storage analyst in the Energy Storage
Business Development Group at NextEra Energy Resources in Juno
Beach, Florida. Niru is also heavily involved with IEEE. She is
currently the Ambassador for IEEE Smart Village(previously IEEE
Community Solutions Initiative (CSI)). She is also part of the IEEE
Global SIGHT steering committee and IEEE USA’s Energy Policy Committee.
She also served on IEEE’s Humanitarian Ad Hoc Committee whose primary
responsibility was to set direction and policies for IEEE member
engagement in Humanitarian activities. She has also served as IEEE’s
Region 6(Western US, Alaska and Hawaii) Women in Engineering
coordinator helping set up various Women in Engineering groups for the
benefit of IEEE women engineers and also for helping inK12 outreach
efforts for engineering

Sr. Product Manager - Microgrids, Bloom Energy,
Ambassador, IEEE Smart Village

I was born in India and when I was young, I saw how much pressure
there was on people to either become an Engineer or a Doctor. So I
wanted to be anything but those. Ironically, slowly I realized that I
actually liked engineering. I finished my Bachelor of Engineering in
Electrical and Electronics (or Power Systems Engineering) from The
National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore. Following
this, I worked for a few years with IT companies in India. However, I
soon realized my calling was in Power Systems Engineering, and so I
decided on graduate school in the field.

I chose University of Washington in Seattle for my graduate school
because it was one of the best schools for Power System Analysis or
Energy Management Systems studies. As luck would have it, as I was
finishing my MS, quite unexpectedly, I landed a job with Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a Department of Energy run
national lab as a Power Systems Research Engineer. I had never before
done research, not even during my graduate degree, so I was much
honored that the lab folks saw this potential in me.

While working for Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL), I started
becoming heavily involved with IEEE. Soon I found myself nominated as
the Region 6 Women in Engineering Coordinator. After that, I made it
my mission to start more Women in Engineering groups within Region 6.
Around this time, I also became interested in the Humanitarian
Activities within IEEE. I met Amarnath Raja (then IEEE HAHC Chair) and
the next thing I knew, I was part of the HAHC. I served on the HAHC
for 2 years, literally witnessing the birth of IEEE SIGHT and
subsequently have been serving on the SIGHT Steering committee for 2
years.

At PNNL, I worked on various cutting edge projects on the Smart Grid.
However, what was missing was the business aspect of things. That’s
when I decided to get an MBA to get sufficient skills for tackling the
business world.

I started my MBA at Cornell University in 2012. During my MBA, I got
two fellowships, one in Environmental Finance & Impact Investing and
the second in Emerging Markets. While studying about emerging market
issues, we were made to realize that, while most businesses were
attracted to the rising middle class in emerging markets, the bigger
segment of doing business came from creatively addressing the issues
of the base of pyramid in these countries. That started a whole new
interest in social enterprise for me. I didn’t know how to marry my
love for social enterprise with my love for renewable energy, but I
knew it had to deal with some form of bringing renewable, sustainable
energy businesses to developing communities globally. That is when I
found out about IEEE Smart Village (then Community Solutions
Initiative) and it struck a strong chord. Immediately after graduating
from my MBA, I decided to volunteer for IEEE Smart Village.

Around that time, I also got an offer from Windlogics, a subsidiary of
NextEra Energy. NextEra Energy is the world’s largest producer of wind
and solar energy and thus it was a dream come true to get the offer. I
moved to St Paul, MN to work for Windlogics, but within a year got an
offer to move to our headquarters in Juno Beach, FL to work in our
Storage Business Development group. NextEra Energy allowed me
to contribute my time to IEEE Smart Village, but also thru the
company’s Dollars for Doers program, the hours I spend on IEEE Smart
Village got converted into a check the company sent to IEEE Smart
Village!

I then went to work for a FACTS start up in the bay area, when my IEEE work specially the IEEE Smart Village work had to take a backseat. But since then I have joined Bloom Energy and am back to my IEEE involvement again. Currently I am in the IEEE HAC group as the projects monitoring and communities of practice chair. I am also making a video on the work done both by IEEE HAC and IEEE Smart village in Galapagos.