Rajeev Kumar Chauhan

Rajeev Kumar Chauhan is 1984 batch Electrical Engineer from University of Roorkee (Now known as IIT-Roorkee). He worked for 30 years with Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (Maharatna Public Sector Undertaking owned by Ministry of Power, Government of India) in various roles & capacities and served as Director on its board & and also served as Chairman on the Board of around 9-10 Power Grid’s Subsidiaries Companies before retiring.

He has unique distinction of having hands-on experience in establishing power plants, Substations and Transmission lines apart from having been associated with the Regulatory and System Planning functions in the Indian Power sector. He is credited with designing & implementing new novel innovative concepts which have immensely solved existing National public Infrastructure problems caused due to DC current causing corrosion to buried metallic objects like gas/oil pipelines etc. which was one of its kind globally & never implemented in any other country before. He is currently serving as consultant to International Solar Alliance.

Basic Background Summary

Full name: Rajeev Kumar Chauhan
Birth: 25th October 1960, Pilibhit, UP
Residence: Gurugram, Haryana
Nationality: Indian
Occupation: Former Director, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited; Currently as *Consultant- International Solar Alliance
Parents: Late Shri Ajai Singh (Father) & Late Shrimati Urmila Singh (Mother)
Spouse: Mrs. Priti Chauhan
Gotra: Lakda
e-mail ID: rkchauhan@gmail.com

Early Life & Family

Rajeev hails from an affluent farmer family in Loomb village, Baghpat District, Uttar Pradesh. He was born in Pilibhit in 1960 to late Shri Ajai Singh, Gazetted officer, State Planning Department, Uttar Pradesh and late Shrimati Urmila Singh (D/o late Shri Balwant Singh, Baoli village, Baghpat District).

He has two siblings: elder sister Shrimati Usha Verma, married to Dr. Jitendra Verma (MBBS, MD) and younger brother Shri Sanjeev Kumar (BE, ME from IIT Roorkee). Rajeev is married to Shrimati Priti Chauhan, daughter of Late Chaudhary Yashpal Singh (Retired Deputy commissioner, Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Society & also served as GM in World Bank) & Late Shrimati Rohitash Kumari. Rajeev & Priti have two children: Elder daughter is Ms. Ilica Chauhan (B. Tech, MBA) who is serving in leadership position in Amazon, India and married to Mr. Priyam Alok, Executive Vice-President & Head-Business Banking in AU Small Finance Bank; Younger son is Mr. Ishan Chauhan (B. Tech, M.S.) who is working as engineer at a leading satellite company in the US.

Education

Rajeev has done schooling across various government schools in Uttar Pradesh. He completed B.Sc. (with Honours) from Rohilkhand University & then pursued B.E. (Electrical Engineering with Honours) from University of Roorkee, now known as IIT-Roorkee. He has completed various leadership courses from Harvard Business School, USA and School of public policy, University of Maryland, USA.

Career

Rajeev has more than 3 decades experience in the power sector spanning Generation, Transmission and Distribution. He started his career with NTPC in 1984 as Executive trainee. He joined Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) in 1993 as Deputy manager and contributed 30 years of his life to the service of the company in various roles & capacities. With his passion for engineering, innovation and leadership experience, he got promoted as Whole-time Director (Projects) in the board of the Company & lead various initiatives & projects of National & International importance. Additionally, he also served on the board of PTC India Limited and on the board as chairman of PGCIL’s subsidiary companies viz. POWERGRID Varanasi Transmission System Limited, POWERGRID Jawaharpur Firozabad Transmission Limited, POWERGIRD Southern Interconnector Transmission System Limited, POWERGRID Medinipur – Jeerat Transmission Limited.

Currently, he is Working as a Consultant, International Solar Alliance, implementing Agency for OSOWOG, with an objective to set up a framework for facilitating global cooperation aiming at building a global ecosystem of interconnected renewable energy resources that can be seamlessly shared. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE), through this initiative, plans to build global consensus about sharing solar resources among more than 140 countries of West Asia and South East Asia.

Notable Contributions & Projects

Vast exposure of different domains and functions of Power Sector including Extra High Voltage, Sub-transmission and distribution in State-of-the-art technologies including implementation of power electronics into various transmission, sub-transmission and distribution system: I. Head of Testing, Commissioning, Operation and Maintenance of Dadri Terminal of ± 500 kV, 1500 MW HVDC Rihand - Dadri Project, the first Bipolar Link in India. It was a critical link in the Northern Region in the 90s and maintaining the links availability was a challenging task during the initial period of operation of the link. Project approximately costed INR 850 crore.

II. Head of O&M of Rihand-Dadri HVDC Station, responsible for trouble shooting hardware / software fault(s).

III. Involved in the Transmission line construction from 1985 to 1988 during which the 400 kV Quad Conductor Ring main was constructed around Delhi Region thereby providing a reliable link of power supply for the Delhi Region. Project approximately costed INR 500 crore.

IV. Technical Team Leader for accomplishing various activities pertaining to the HVDC Projects including Vizag HVDC BTB Link, Sasaram HVDC BTB Link, ± 500 kV, 2000 MW Talcher - Kolar HVDC project, ± 500 kV, 2500 MW Ballia- Bhiwadi HVDC project and Talcher-Kolar Upgrade. All projects together costed around INR 7000 crore

V. Planning, coordination and Detailed Engineering of ±800 kV 6000 MW NER-Agra HVDC Multi-terminal project which is the first ±800 kV Multi-terminal HVDC project in the world and costed around INR 7000 crore.

VI. Conceptualization of DMR based HVDC systems as an alternative to the Earth Electrode used as return path in HVDC systems, to save right of way and minimizing the adverse impact on environment

VII. Responsible for Execution and integration of two Bipoles of ±800 kV, 3000MW + 3000 MW Champa-Kurukshetra HVDC Project. First such project at ± 800 kV in the world with Dedicated Metallic Return (DMR) Conductor. Project costed approximately INR 6500 crore.

VIII. Technical Team Leader for carrying out detailed engineering of the ±800 kV, 6000 MW HVDC parallel converters from Raigarh to Pugalur commissioned by Dec 2020 and costed INR 6500 crore

IX. Technical Team Leader for detailed Engineering of ± 320 kV, 2 X 1000 MW Pugalur – Trichur project, first VSC based HVDC project of India involving a combination of HVDC XLPE underground cable and overhead line costed INR 3000 crore

X. Team leader pertaining to Consultancy assignment pertaining to ±500 kV, 1300 MW Central Asia- South Asia (CASA-1000) HVDC project involving Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan and 2 x 500 MW HVDC BTB (HVDC Block 1 and Block 2) Cross Border Indo Bangladesh Interconnector link with INR 3000 crore as approximate cost

XI. Involved in feasibility studies of India Sri-Lanka Interconnector project analysing various scheme options pertaining to Overhead Line vs Submarine Cable transmission for sea crossing. Project costed approximately INR 3600 crore

XII. Chairman of CIGRE Working Group B4, thereby facilitating the dissemination of knowledge in the field of HVDC systems among all stakeholders

XIII. Was presented by Hon’ble Power Minister with Gold Shields in 2011-12 for commissioning of 400KV D/C Quad Mauda - Wardha transmission system well ahead of the approved schedule

XIV. Responsible for the planning and development of Green Energy Corridors (33GW) and various facilities for integration and evacuation of Renewable energy which have been implemented for the first time in India & costed approximately INR 5000 crore

XV. Under my tenure, Connectivity had been granted for 47,730 MW of Renewable Energy Power (Solar & Wind) and the Long-Term Access and Medium-Term Open Access Granted for 24,855MW and 1055MW respectively.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Being a Member of Committee of Board of Directors for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in PGCIL, he also undertook various CSR projects.
The projects undertaken involved providing drinking water infrastructure, solar installations, sanitation infrastructure, computers/furniture for schools, construction of community centres, organizing medical camps, providing ambulances to district administration, providing & installing hand pumps, road building, building toilets, installing Wi-Fi connectivity at local train stations, providing fibre connectivity to gram panchayats.
All these projects were focussed solely on rural areas in Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, U.P., Karnataka, M.P., J&K, Northeast states.
The cumulative costs of CSR activities under his guidance amounted to approx. 2000 crores spread over the period of 3 years.

Papers Published in National & International Journals

Development and Implementation of Intelligent Condition Monitoring System for Transformers and Reactors, Cigré Paper, 2020
Engineering and Management of Communication Networks in POWERGRID's First Digital Substation, Cigré Paper, 2020
Development of Power Transmission System Interconnections in South-Asian Region Cigré Paper, 2020
“Studies for Upcoming +/- 320 kV, 2000 MW Pugalur – Trichur VSC HVDC link with +/- 800 kV, 6000 MW Raigarh – Pugalur LCC HVDC link”, Cigré Paper, 2018 Paris Session
“Concept to Design – Multi-terminal at 800 kV HVDC: NER/ER - NR/WR Interconnector – I Project in India” Cigré Paper B4-103, August 22-27, 2010, Paris, France
“Basic Design Aspects of Ballia-Bhiwadi 2500 MW HVDC Power Transmission System” https: //www.semanticscholar.org , 2008