Energy storage is needed at scale to balance the intermittent availability of renewable energy with demand, and make it available as a steady resource that can cater to all our needs.

Swetha Sundaram, our next pathbreaker, Director of Energy Storage Project Design at RWE Clean Energy (Austin, Texas), is responsible for delivering design of energy storage projects for commercially viable and safe operations.

Swetha talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about her growing interest and a passion towards environmental issues and sustainability concepts that eventually shaped her career in clean energy.

For students, your future is based on your decisions. So, don’t shy away from exploring new areas of studies, but be pragmatic and responsible.

Swetha, your initial years?

I was born and raised in Chennai. My school (DAV Public School and Vidya Mandir) and college life (SSN College of Engineering) were pretty standard with focus on academics. I was always interested in dance, and made sure I engaged in dance activities through my schooling years. Both my parents have a Commerce background, so did not have any deep understanding of sciences but have always been very supportive of my choices, which were generally reasonable/responsible.

I chose Biotech as my ‘elective’ in school (11th and 12th grades) instead of biology as I found the concept of biotech and genetic engineering, at a high level, to be interesting. I did indeed enjoy my biotech course-work and lab-work thanks to the interest in the topics, as well as a great teacher who felt like a friend rather than a conventional teacher. She made things interesting and relaxed.

I have also had an interest and a growing passion towards environmental issues and sustainability concepts. It’s hard to trace exactly when that started. I grew up in what used to be a very nice part of the city, but the building I grew up in aged faster than I did, my surroundings grew very congested and dirty. I was always bothered by things like garbage being openly strewn around, and though I yearned to do something about it, I didn’t know where to start. It really bothered me that using and throwing plastics, which we used to do thoughtlessly, was leaving such a long standing impact in and around our homes. I would notice when trees got cut down for expanding roads, etc. All these experiences led me to think about pursuing some aspect of ‘environmental sciences’ to be able to contribute to a sustainable future in whatever way I could. My thoughts weren’t nearly as clear, and I didn’t know where to start for sure. But I just went with the buzzwords I heard and tried to see where it would take me.

What did you do for graduation/post graduation?

When I hit the point of choosing a Bachelor’s degree, I was sure in my head that I did not want to pursue anything to do with Computer Science. It was a sort of teenage rebellion too – to try to steer away from what the majority were doing.

As mentioned above, I kept having this interest in biotechnology and environmental sciences, so I tried to pursue these areas in some way. A wise person advised me to get a better foundation in industry concepts that could serve as the stepping stone for an industry career. Also, I was told that if I go into pure biotech, I would be channeled into a PhD route, which I did not want. Plus, at the core of it, I am an analytical person – naturally very logic-driven and succinct in my thinking and writing. So I felt I was better suited for engineering which has a lot of math and logical aspects involved.

All this culminated in my choosing Chemical Engineering as my focus for my Bachelor’s degree. For Masters – I chose to do Environmental Engineering with an intended focus in microbiology or biochemistry aspects of environmental remediation.

The Environmental Engineering Masters program, at least at Purdue, which is where I did it, is kind of a hybrid program where we were encouraged to take courses from the schools of civil engineering (like water quality), chemical engineering (like chemical processes in environmental remediation, air quality modeling), mechanical/industrial engineering (like life cycle analysis).

I am very glad I chose this major, because it did give me a broad foundation that is geared towards industry (which can be applied to several streams like chemicals, pharma, biotech/biosciences, environmental remediation, petroleum/energy, etc.) and gave me options to branch off for my Masters.

What were some of the influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional and uncommon career?

As mentioned above, I had a strong interest in environmental science and sustainability concepts. I didn’t have any mentors who drew me towards this. I had a broad idea about the energy industry and how it would have a strong impact on a sustainable future. So, I jumped at the opportunity of working in the energy industry when I got a chance. I couldn’t be too choosy either because I was bound by visa constraints and associated-time constraints to find a job when I graduated.

My intention was to do an MS thesis on some topic related to bioremediation. Instead, by a stroke of chance, I happened to work with an advisor who had more of an energy focus. I did an independent study of sustainable microgrids under him. That got me thinking about energy, and eventually into the industry itself where the future seemed evolving and exciting – more so than more traditional environmental engineering topics.

Tell us about your career path

After my Masters, my first job was for a utility called Indianapolis Power & Light in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It is a company that produces and distributes energy (electricity). I was brought on board as Resource Analyst II responsible for forecasting the customer load of the utility. Although it sounds boring, it involved understanding the energy industry basics and a lot of econometric analysis. As mentioned earlier, I am a person with an analytical bent of mind, so I enjoyed learning to do the analysis from scratch. The company was also filled with people in their 50s and 60s – people who had been born and raised in the area, lived their life there, started work at this company and planned to retire there. It was a family-oriented work-place, in a way. I was definitely the odd-person out being a young Indian girl in a very white, middle-aged male dominated work setting, that is a whole other topic. But on the positive side – my coworkers were extremely cordial and treated me really well as a fresher who was sincere and eager to learn. There were key people who taught me a lot about the energy industry fundamentals in an almost teacher like manner. With a very supportive but hands-off manager, I thrived and made the best of my time there in terms of showcasing responsibility and learning tons to pave the way for next steps in my career.

Given my interest in sustainability, I knew that I wanted to get into the renewables world by leveraging my learnings of the energy markets. The transition to the next role was motivated both because I wanted to move to a more diverse and thriving part of the country as well as wanting to step into renewables. I got lucky when I came across the perfect job opportunity – one that called for a background in forecasting analysis of energy technologies and analytic skills, but that focused on energy storage at another utility. I applied to this role (Sr. Strategic Analyst – Energy Storage) at Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco, CA. This paved the way for me to learn about energy storage in the fastest-growing storage market in the world (California), at one of the most cutting-edge utilities in the country and also closer to a lot of my friends in the Bay area.

After that, I liked the world of energy storage and knew that I was going to be better valued with a niche background in a growing technology. When I felt I was stagnated at the role at PG&E (there were also visa issues I had to get out of), I found an opportunity to work for a ‘developer’ called RWE Renewables (fka E.On Climate & Renewables) – a company that builds and operates renewable assets such as wind, solar and energy storage plants. I got on board as a Program Manager on the storage team. The team was small, as the industry was just starting to grow. The advantage of that was that I got to learn a lot about designing and building storage projects in a hands-on manner.

When things stagnated in my role at E.On/RWE, I decided to give consulting a shot. I joined DNV – a global energy advisory company – as a Sr. Consultant in the energy storage group. My focus was on Independent Engineering wherein we’re hired to do risk and due-diligence reviews on projects in an independent manner for financiers to get confident on projects and ultimately provide project financing. I got to work on a large number of diverse projects across developers, across the country. Moreover, I got exposure to the multiple facets of technology, design, site and commercial considerations of energy storage projects which, by this point, have grown to an enormous scale.

Finally, I have rejoined RWE Clean Energy in my current role as Director of Energy Storage Project Design.I lead a team of engineers who are responsible for design aspects and cross-functional coordination with different groups in the company for energy storage projects.

Most of my roles up till this point have been through applications on LinkedIn as well as trying to reach out to the hiring manager directly, or someone within the company to get my resume seen by the hiring manager. Networking is definitely a crucial aspect of landing a job you desire in the US, especially on a visa. After a point of building experience in an area and connections, one can expect to get contacted by head-hunters or from the direct network of opportunities.

How did you get your first break?

I would call my move to PG&E on the west coast my  ‘break’ as it was my break into the world of storage and renewables in general, as well as to the west coast of the US which has had a profound impact on my professional life. I got to meet, work with and learn from high-caliber people who were really concentrated in the SF Bay Area.

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

The grad school (Purdue), the school of civil engineering – which is where my program was housed – was one of the top ranked schools in the US, and the field of environmental engineering looked to be up and coming. Purdue is also known to have a really expansive career fair. However, the environmental engineering discipline was very poorly represented in terms of companies. There were hardly any firms that were present in the fairs that were interested in hiring environmental disciplines, whereas I saw my CS, Mechanical and even Civil engineering (conventional civil) friends walking away from career fairs with at least one job. No one was willing to hire a new grad even though my grades had been top notch, or if they wanted to hire, it was for a very low salary. I also did not have good guidance from Indians seniors because there were very few. Cherry on the cake was that the state I was in – Indiana – didn’t really foster this industry. Location matters a lot, as it was easier for companies to hire local candidates at least back then. I diversified by applying to energy-industry roles (up until then, I had been looking for classic environmental engineering roles only). But even those were few and far in between. I was a bit all-over-the-place in my approach, but thankfully landed on my feet in a good industry.

Another challenge has always been visa woes. For more niche industries (that don’t have a lot of active hiring), companies are generally apprehensive to hire people on visa, especially if you do not have the direct experience they are seeking. Plus, being on H1B visa, there is a ticking timeline on the processes that need to be completed by the employer for you to be able to continue to be in the US. This was an issue when one of my employers refused to do this process at a critical time, which put pressure on me to change employers as soon as I could. This is never a favourable position to be in.

Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?

I work for RWE Clean Energy as the Director of Energy Storage Project Design. I am responsible for delivering design of energy storage projects the company plans to build for commercially viable and safe operations. This involves selecting the appropriate technology for the project, designing technical elements of the project that form the foundation of the engineering design, and being the subject-matter-expert on energy storage in interfaces with various groups within the company that come together to build these projects. My particular job is to manage a team of four engineers to perform these duties, make sure the learnings are applied across projects and manage the team’s workload. 

What’s a typical day like?

My typical day is filled with meetings as these project activities are extremely collaborative. I also coordinate with other team leads to stay in sync. I really enjoy working with people I closely collaborate with, thinking of ways to make the team work better and learning more about industry trends in energy storage technology.

How does your work benefit society? 

In the grand scheme of things, I find satisfaction in the fact that I am deepening my expertise in one of the critical technologies that will be indispensable in the fight against climate change. This is because we’re going to see growth of renewables in all parts of the world, and they are intermittent by nature. Energy storage is needed at scale to balance this intermittency and make renewable energy a steady resource of energy that can cater to all our needs.

Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!

There are many projects/aspects of the work that have been memorable. In my first job, I got assigned a lot of responsibility unexpectedly as my co-worker quit within two months of me joining as a new employee. This put me in the spot of figuring out important analyses that formed the basis of the company’s financial projections. It also required me to analyze resource needs of the company – meaning if they have to modify their power generating resources or acquire new ones to meet their demand. This analysis had to be presented in technical forums to a public audience. I got put in the limelight, but performed well as I felt like I didn’t have too much to lose (which was a silly view, but helped with confidence). I also developed wonderful mentor relationships with experienced people in the company, which was invaluable.

Your advice to students based on your experience?

Don’t shy away from exploring new areas of studies, but be pragmatic and responsible. Your future is based on your decisions. Develop a network right from college and grad school days. Location matters in making good connections (however that has become less relevant post Covid). Try to stay in touch with industry happenings and requirements when choosing research topics.

Future Plans?

I’d like to grow into leadership roles in energy storage or a similarly growing technology that helps the world move a step closer to becoming more sustainable for our future generations.