Rudy Shankar

Rudy Shankar

I have enjoyed successful business career in energy and wish to pass on to the younger generation the challenges, the innovative potential and the importance of electricity to health and prosperity.

Location United States

Achievements

Activity

  • C- Customer, Supermarket Purchasing Manager, Prod Manager , Sales & Dev Mgr, Finance & Purchasing Mgr
    D- HR and Franchise Manager & Competitor
    B- Aunt Carla

  • Having transitioned from the business world (40+ years) to academia-- training them for leadership in energy under a Masters program in 10 months- I am learning about fluid organizational responsibilities, deadlines as aspirations and, yes, viewing my students as customers. Also learned that the revenue business model is byzantine. So:

    Key Stakeholders-...

  • Today's market provides a 360-degree view on everybody. You as a product manager will be judged by your customers, competition, associates and peers. Your bosses, stakeholders, well wishers have yet another view. It doesn't take much for reputations to be enhanced (or ruined) by any one of them articulating via the internet

  • How fitting! Sir David who devoted and continues his work on nature, its impact, in beautiful pictures, words. And Barack Obama who was the first truly world citizen for whom the leadership mantle was very appropriate. Climate change is not what will destroy civilization but would cause untold misery and havoc. CC strategies are more to minimize than to avoid...

  • I am still in awe of the amount of material presented and the effort put into it by GEM. To have such a wealth of knowledge shared for free! Just one word of caution: while it is free there may be some unintended false impressions of energy. It remains the best time to be in energy for innovation but also it is now even more difficult to manage with all the...

  • Good points! Especially since GEM is/must be very conversant of EdF's long and impressive track record with nuclear. Another point is that the European customers seem more willing than Americans to pay a premium for renewable energy.

  • "What motivates a computer?" Interesting question...

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    Hi, everybody. I have had a long career in the energy field and I find the most exciting things are happening with Big Data, especially in equipment health diagnostics and prognostics. Imagine if you can accurately forecast the output of a solar farm as cloud cover approaches. Imagine if you are able to smooth out the intermittencies due to varying wind...

  • 1. From the scope, timeline and $ develop a prototype plan. Be prepared to change the plan quite often
    2. Have a "good handle" on the risks, internal and external in task completion. In the energy industry have you ever wondered why nuclear plant construction is one which ALWAYS has cost over-runs? It is because risk is a moving target, and the risk register...

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    Very well organized and packaged course and packed a lot of material! I like the focus on the 'holy trinity" as well as development and ownership of risks. In all my experience the risk register was the holy trinity and Excalibur rolled into one!

    The final test was terribly marred with the wrong set of data provided which would lead the student to answer...

  • Most of the challenges I have encountered are in three bins: adding/subtracting tasks, having the right personnel, and cost management. They are intricately linked, one affects the other two. But costs or the monitoring of always a challenge. It may depend on fairly trivial issues-- delays in reporting up-to-date costs, hidden costs, etc.

  • I would like to share one of the many views of the Smart Meter during my years as an executive with a US utility company. When deciding to implement, our job was to have town hall discussions on the advantages and solicit comments. I was quite surprised that even among non-rural gatherings there was a great suspicion that the smart meter would be used to spy...

  • Looking back at this very positive experience... it is i believe of much use to ones somewhat knowledgeable about new energies.. actually well aware. Not recommended for newbies, recreationalists..

  • Interesting! And the market potential of HPP!

  • This is where the rubber meets the road.. where project management by textbook knowledge meets the hard-knock world! I believe the projects that have to deal with the "unks unks" are the rule rather than the exception. My personal experience is less a cookie-cutter approach more on the job learning

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    Very well done! Worthy of emulation!! I think the "actors" in each technology was important but I wished there was a more global approach. What is happening in the US? In South America? And of course India and China which are soon to become leaders in electricity generation and consumption.

  • If anything the proliferation of new smart grid technologies,, investments and results of demonstrations have only exposed why ALL stakeholders need to be informed as well as aligned if not accepting of policies, market designs, regulations that will define the future grid. Cybersecurity or the lack of it is the "elephant in the room" that can disrupt these...

  • Not necessarily. Just as the mobile phone market has enabled a landline phone transition to the ever-present cell phone with functions so much more advanced than the original, consumers are paying more for cell phone service. For this has included new services. The "new" services for the future electricity market will be reflected in reduced carbon footprint...

  • Storage is the key to RE success and market penetration and will depend on not only new technologies but also efficient market design that rewards the developer for various uses. As much as the consumer will end up paying for these services, the consumer must also be made aware of the value of the electricity he/she is using. Utilities have never been good at...

  • Good point. If everyone has access to the same information then the "efficient market" theory should be operative and the tariffs would adjust accordingly. I am afraid an element for debate that may enter into this is that lower income households may not be able to act on this information (for various reasons) and the market may have the perception (or in...

  • My personal view: all of the above. The consumer pays less BUT perhaps measured in per unit energy charge and on reduced carbon footprint. And also measured by some intangible features: more resilience, better RE prediction may lead to bettwe power quality. In the US smart phones have not decreased my phone bills from the past, but on the contrary given me...

  • I like the European model to build flexibility to the grid by leveraging the complentarities of the individual nations, supporting a strong RE forecasting capability and assuring stable supply.

  • A nice overview again but perhaps too much of belaboring definitions by verbatim reporting what the US DOE and the French Ministry of Energy have to say. Could have been just displayed with the instructor emphasizing the key elements. I think the professor had it right when he emphasized that the "smartness" of the grid is required in the distribution...

  • Very nice overview for the week! An opening introduction of the topic on what is a smart grid and answering it in a short sentence would have been nice. "A smart grid is the 'dumb' grid with a communication infrastructure overlaid" would have been a simple way to start!

  • Task dependencies are sometimes obvious: you know it when you see it. But then again, some dependencies emerge during the task. For example, a resource once available for a task may be diverted to a more pressing assignment ( she is the CEO and can pull this off!) leaving you in the lurch.

  • Nice section on Planning!

  • Ahmed, I believe your project was built to fail. Your project seems it had all the elements ensuring high risk. Cultural differences, lack of trust, and inadequate on-the-ground knowledge. Perhaps the scope could have been addressed one at a time? Maybe several projects whose scopes are: a) identifying means of fraud,i.e, is it thieving? rampant disconnects?...

  • If the machine is custom manufactured, i believe it will have to be treated as a project. Otherwise, I think it should be considered routine.

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    After half-way through the course, I must commend Professor Yael Grushka-Cockayne in how well she has packaged the information. I think from own practical experience some of her discussion on Earliest Start Time and Latest Start Time, etc., were useful but in an academic sense. In my experience start time tweaks are always governed by a) monies authorization...

  • By far the most common mistake I have made is not having adequate tasks because I overlooked, or was reminded that we need to have that part of the scope. Estimates of task duration are another common mistake, because staff may be intimidated to claim less time, whereas the task may require more. Cannot ignore the project budget. Because in most cases this is...

  • Scoping is more arduous, you are planning for possibilities and need to be cognizant of ALL combinations of "what-ifs". From a customer standpoint the 'starter pistol" has gone off and they may be impatient in seeing their $ are being spent in planning. There is also that the perception of planning is that you still have all the tasks to complete. Good...

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    Q1 Have you had some experiences in having to amend your plan/s?

    I can safely say that amending a plan is the rule rather than the exception. For no plan can be so perfect that it does not need tweaking sometimes in major way!

    Q2 What were some of the challenges in doing so?

    There were many. The resources were recalculated, schedules modified and...

  • Interesting experience, Andrew. Many organizations still view project management as a means to an end-- which of course is true-- but some take a strong look at the process as a way of improving organizational efficiencies. And so post-mortems may be unwelcome, especially if the results are dire and you can be sure back-stabbing may take over instead.

  • Apropos interconnections: they would not exist at country borders if there were no mutually beneficial interests. No wonder hydroelectric fuel , i.e., water is sometimes a useful weapon of war.

  • My entire career has been working in R&D and of course project planning and defining scope within budget and time constraints were paramount. But a recent experience as a project manager charged with developing a state's energy plan that involved so MANY stakeholders was an eye opener. For as much as the stakeholders had high interest, the persons with the...

  • When I first started in my career, I attended a wonderful project management seminar held in Williamsburg, VA. The opening talk in this 5-day event was very simply put: a project like a story had a beginning, a middle and an end. And the speaker went on to say it DOES have an end!

  • Both were large projects, the first was of course by design long, very long. So many opportunities for screw ups but I believe it was fortunate that they had a willing cast and essentially well managed. So the failure ingredient in the first project was fortuitously or otherwise well managed.

    The second project Terminal 5 had all the ingredients for...

  • I love the "star" chart. An easy way to define what the scope/budget/time factors should be and the resources. Also, I would see that if the star is thick and fat, then project success would be an uphill climb! but doable with the right set of people

  • Very nicely explained. In real world projects, it may be the ones who show the most interest are also the most power in the project. When there are many powers and many interests, you could have the squeakiest wheel be the one who has the least power. Fortunately, the power and interest are mainly well correlated and aligned in real world projects

  • Maybe it is too early to talk about setting up "risk registry". All the things that can go wrong and setting up the likelihood (probability) of these events happening

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    Hi! I am Rudy Shankar and have had a long career in Energy, energy technologies, project management and worked around the world. Even though I have been in the business for 44 years, started my own company, was an executive with a large utility... it is never too late to learn. So here I am.. in full learning mode.. a student who wants to know more

  • This week on Biogas was very well done. I believe this is one of the more underappreciated areas of renewable energy since it addresses use of human waste as a valuable sustainable energy source. And the best part from a CAPEX standpoint is like solar/wind the fuel is not only free but tipping fees could add to the levelized cost of electricity calculations.

  • Prolonged drought/climate change in the SE US over the past decade had caused a steady decline in water supply in the dams. That's a real problem since dams's functions extend beyond generating power. They need to conform to local homeowners ordinances to maintain property value, etc.Yes, dams are the best form of energy storage yet, but we do not have that...

  • I have a different take.

    I believe the developing world is most affected by climate change impacts for the short and long term that they have a strong vested interest. China and India have air pollution that has a direct impact on the health of millions/billions of citizens. Among the low-lying nations: Mauritius, Bangladesh, the Indonesian archipelago are...

  • Your point about "..put an equal focus on making current methods clean at the same time.." is well taken. Coal and NG will be with us for some time and with the US being less cooperative (although the US market is solidly behind cheap NG and renewable) the earth CO2 content will likely rise in the next decade

  • The conventional way to manage the grid and still prevalent is the RTO. With intermittent resources downstream of the RTO, there is very little "visibility". More and more the local DSO- Distribution Systems Operator, will have more autonomy with frequent interaction with the RTO. Second, the price of electricity could be dynamic depending on the DSO and load...

  • In all fairness building large hydro facilities has had negative impact in every country. Here is a good summary http://tinyurl.com/o8wdwur

  • Ted, thanks for the explanation. large scale movement of local population has its own set of drawbacks. Example, The movement of Inuits in Canada from the South to near towns in the NW Passage during the 1920s has had a stunning negative impact over so many generations. Highest rate of suicides.. see the film "The Polar Seas"

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    Hi y'all! Very eclectic group and in the short time so far learned a lot from you. Me? I imagine am lot older than many of you, but very young at heart! Energy is at the most important juncture. It has never been more important, never been more complex, and never been so innovative. I remember the long gas (petrol n some countries) lines in 1973 due to the oil...

  • https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/electricity.cfm

    Hydroelectricity is, of course, a cost-effective source and reliable but not considered a bulwark for various reasons but at present contributes less than 2 TKWh (coal + natural gas + nuclear = 17) ) and is projected to be 5 TKWh in 2040 (C+NG+N= 27). Hydro is always one of the cheapest in the dispatch order...

  • As a third year student at IITD we conducted a site visit to Bhakra Nangal plant. It was such a massive structure. The potential of small hydro is very high in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya region

  • Wow! NZ could teach the world on how to manage a grid without the traditional bulwarks-- coal and nuclear-- providing grid stability. Like to hear about NZ lessons learned.

  • The article by William Pentland in the list of references is revealing. It is about what is needed for the industry: new business model for new energy generators! This will be along time coming but I believe as the article suggests that NY under its REV program may be the next US state to adopt something similar.

  • Good question. Especially due to abrasion damage of sand storms. They must be cleaned and of course any large facility would require lot of water to clean. But here is an interesting robotic cleaner deployed by Israel.

    http://www.solarnovus.com/robotic-solar-cleaning-in-the-desert_N8507.html

  • There were some comments that there seems to be some "exaggeration" of technologies studied so far as we approach Week 3. The exaggerated potential of hydro...Ubiquity of solar...In the limited time per week, I believe the instructors have done a pretty good job of teaching the essentials.

    I wish the instructors more clearly stated in the beginning of week...

  • Richard. Good post! Ever since regulated utilities ( in the US) stopped seeing steady growth in electricity demand in the 1970s, and double digit profits from a regulated rate base, they have been struggling to define other "beneficial uses" . They dabbled in using wires for internet traffic, selling their telephone pole space to cable and telephone vendors,...

  • Rudy Shankar made a comment

    I have had the good fortune in my work to visit several power facilities around the world. Whether it is a relatively small facility (Melton Hill Dam, TVA, where I had the overall responsibility of developing a renewable energy park for the guests https://www.tva.gov/Environment/Recreation/The-Greenest-Campground) or to Itaipu in Brazil, Guri in Venezuela, I...

  • As a green, renewable resource tidal energy has the rare quality of being predictable unlike solar and wind. There are innovations in minimizing O&M costs via modularity. But operating history lacking.

  • Good points! And further complication due to borders and sensitivities of neighboring countries.

  • Hydropower is considered a renewable resource (although for accounting reasons, existing hydro plants are not) but it is also flexible and as a storage plant one of the most efficient. South America is blessed with vast hydro resources but my experience at one country I worked was disappointing since they neglected O&M, had severe cavitation-flow induced...

  • Good idea. Suggestion to have a complementary reliable green source through tidal flows very intriguing!

  • Good point! The wells-to-wheels approach in the carbon footprint description of different generating technologies is more comprehensive. However, the estimates may be way off because of different geographies, fuel extraction technologies, land area used, environmental impact including flora and fauna etc., etc.

  • Rudy Shankar replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]

    On the one hand, you need 195 countries (minus 1) to agree and the agreement must be flexible, broad and accommodating. On the other each nation must be convinced, yes, there may be "cheating" but the guilt factor in doing so is equivalent to a capital crime-- despoiling the earth. I am pretty sure climate change is non-understandable by many. Sanctions could...

  • Spot on! In the US there is book by Bonbright, "Principles of Public Utility Rates" that has served as the Bible on public utility pricing theories, the economic concepts supporting rate designs and policies since 1960s. Should it be revamped for the new realities: distributed resources, consumer-generated electricity rates, storage,...

  • Lot of commentary here on some of the glaring weakness today of solar being the "Big Dog" of generation to replace the traditional kings: coal, nuclear and NG. The latter have all served us well through the decades but climate change is a real problem. In the early 50's there was talk of Canada ringing Lake Ontario with nuclear power plants that could serve...

  • Good point HP! IEEE 1547 that addresses this issue is key and we in the US have encountered problems. Perhaps it is because the developers are not as savvy as the utilities operating the grid!

  • Ah, The Hawthorne Effect! http://www.economist.com/node/12510632

  • Why Incandescent Bulbs Are Not Used for Heating;
    1. They are not efficient heaters. Incandescent bulbs are essentially electric resistance heaters and are far less efficient than using natural gas, propane or an air-source heat pump.
    2. They are not positioned where heaters should be. Heat travels upwards. And yet many, if not most, light bulbs are hanging...

  • In 2030 India has projected its generation mix to be 40% renewable of the total (850 GW capacity). In the US that figure is expected to be 13% (total capacity~ 1700 GW capacity). India is expected to exceed its CO2 reduction committed in the Paris Accords.

  • Well, yes, they are different but the LCOE better not be theoretical, since the owner would like to know if the product is generating revenue

  • In all fairness, I think the economics of renewable energy must be discussed since GO-NO GO decisions are more likely to be economics-driven. It would be interesting to hear about how production costs and efficiency of panels improved, how the Balance of Systems costs can be reduced, how "plug-and-play" panels (we did not hear about that) to include smart...

  • France like many other countries has feed in tariffs and carbon credit for RE resources. So the disparity may not be that large, but solar LCOE is still more than base-loaded generation

  • You are right, Ron, about the sometimes lofty gains of renewables: fastest growth, low costs, etc. must be moderated by the net ENERGY supplied. A 10 MW solar plant may account for only 20% of the nameplate, i.e., 2 MWh. The challenge for the next decade or so is how to supply large chunks of energy -- like fossil and nuclear plants do today-- reliably and...

  • Good questions Ron and very pertinent as CA solar grid contribution rises in the summer:
    Question: "Does the 'comparable basis' (i.e. LCOE) include other necessary costs incurred for/by intermittent energy, such as (50% - 100%) standby capacity and extra grid infrastructure?
    The market value of intermittent renewable resources is indexed by a capacity value....

  • Some more details on stance of China and India:

    o In January, China announced a plan to invest $360 billion in renewable energy through 2020, with a goal of creating 13 million jobs.
    o The 13th Five Year Plan, covering 2016–2020, also sets ambitious targets for non-fossil capacity: By 2020, the country expects to install 340 GW of hydropower, 200 GW of...

  • I wish the instructors in week 2 could have also focused on how China and India have in recent years reversed coal-plant construction to greener resources. This is especially important in light of the climate change challenges and necessary since the US has withdrawn its commitment. I'll comment on the US pullout of the Paris Climate Change accords in a later...

  • Ed, there are several reasons. 1) A large part of the costs of a solar system is the balance of systems costs or BOS costs. These are the components that take the DC electricity and convert it to AC for the grid. These may vary from country to country 2) Grid price itself is a factor. For example Germany electricity price is much higher than, say, here in the...

  • Nuclear power is not renewable-- because the nuclear materials you list are obviously finite. It is green, no doubt, and the most viable green alternative we have for a reliable resource on the grid.

    I don't understand why you list geothermal energy is nuclear-powered? Here is a definition:http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/geothermal-energy/tech.html

  • To Achal: Yes, the term "renewable" applies solely to the fuel used in energy conversion to electricity. Wind, sun, tidal flow and to a certain extent all of hydro fall in that category. The total carbon footprint must take into account the mining costs, production costs, lifetime O&M and decommissioning and consignment costs. Often call the "wells-to-wheels"...

  • Well said! All energy conversion results in inefficiencies in the conversion. Conversion of heat to mechanical to electric energy is particularly inefficient but since the original fuel (fossil or nuclear is not renewable ) they result in large quantities of wasted heat. Sankey charts nicely illustrate this.

  • Interesting, Ron! So much of energy choices are sometimes driven more for qualitative reasons than by $ savings!

  • Most of the loss is due the laws of thermodynamics.. converting fossil/nuclear fuel heat to steam to turn turbines to generate electricity.

  • This is a complex issue. First, utilities were set up as monopolies to sell electricity, whereas the new business model needs to include suppliers, ESCOs, consumers, stakeholders, shareholders of the utility to participate in a win-win model. Second, in America, there is no Federal policy but 50 different state policies. In some states a new business model can...

  • For most Americans, electricity bills continue to be a small part of their disposable income. Granted there exceptions: low-income households do not consider electricity bills low; i agree that during hot or cold months people's bills are much higher. I like the social media approach but I wonder if the language of kWh and Demand Charge is the language that...

  • Very well done presentation. You explained the carbon challenge beautifully (.. and scarily!)

  • So much of policy drives clean energy adoption and energy efficiency is no exception. If both the supplier and consumer are rewarded-- the supplier for "earning" money by not selling electricity and the consumer by making more efficient use--there would be more incentives. Of course the utilities must also recognize that energy efficiency defers further...

  • "..the Rocky Mountain Institute in the United States showed that labor productivity is about 16 percent higher when office buildings are energy-efficient, because they are more comfortable, quieter, and have better air and lighting."

    I would agree with this assessment since lighting costs are the heaviest burden.

  • Public awareness is key but the communication to the public must be done in simple, understandable terms. For too long, the public is not aware of the complexity of the grid and neither has is been explained well by engineers who know something about it. So the grid is "ignored". When solar and wind developers bring on new supplies the grid is rarely brought...

  • I believe especially in the western world there is a concern but no real understanding of the choices and compromises. In addition, we are not aware of our enormous carbon footprint and the consequences on the planet. If the rest of the world were to consume energy like the West then there would have been visited with climate change and global warning much...