Energetica India Magazine May - June 2026

from scheduling maintenance during low-wind windows to de - ploying the right manpower with the right gear at the right time. That reduces not only downtime but also the risk of emergency interventions. When safety and efficiency go hand- in-hand, we see fewer interruptions, greater team confidence, and more predictable energy output. Q O&M in renewables used to be about uptime and cost. Now it’s increasingly about intelligence, foresight and optimi- sation. What are some of the deeper insights your data teams are surfacing that are changing how decisions are made at the site level? Praveen Kakulte: You’re right, O&M has evolved from just ensuring uptime to becoming a deeply intelligence-led, preci - sion-driven function. This is where our data teams are surfac - ing insights that go far beyond traditional monitoring. We’re detecting micro-trends in turbine behaviour, how specific ma - chines respond to terrain, wind shear, or ageing components, and using those patterns to calibrate operations in real time. We’re leveraging trend analysis for spares forecasting, reduc - ing last-minute callouts and downtime. But what’s equally important is how these insights are made actionable. We’ve built workflows where site teams don’t just respond to alarms; they make informed decisions based on historical data, prob - abilities, and asset-specific risk models. It’s a shift from fire - fighting to foresight. Correlations based on learnings prior to a failure, via-a-vis mapping the pertinent conditions while the assets are oper - ational, is like a neural network feeding the artificial intelli - gence to predict a possibility of failure. Such predictive an - alytics helps in a proactive solution to an anticipated failure. Q As the clean energy sector becomes more competitive, scale alone no longer guarantees impact. What, in your view, distinguishes a true O&M partner from one that merely meets the SLA checklist, especially in a sector where downtime comes with rising strategic costs? Praveen Kakulte: In today’s clean energy landscape, where every unit of energy counts and downtime carries a strategic cost, a true O&M partner should have a complete Ecosystem that is beyond ticking SLA boxes or providing service deliv - ery. The POWERCON Group is a 360-degree RE Ecosystem, configured through autonomous SBUs that serve every need across the entire RE delivery chain. As an O&M partner, our completeness resides in 5 M’s – Man, Material, Machinery, Methods and Money. POWERCON’s CORE Academy is a manufacturing facility of RE commandos profiled through rigorous workshops, classrooms, simulators, and sandwiched with on-the-job training. Our multi-national presence, plus global tie-ups with OEMs and service providers, ensures availability of spares of every make of turbines, to and from India. Our Centre for Engi - neering Excellence (CFEE) fights technology obsolescence through re-engineering, handles repairs and refurbishments of components to bring them back to life. Specialised machinery, jigs and fixtures specific to applica - tions is our in-house design effort. Our 3 decades of experi - ence, poured into a knowledge bank, encapsulate all the need - ed methods to operate and maintain RE assets optimally. We don’t just maintain machines; we co-own the performance. That means aligning with our clients’ goals, innovating at the edge of operations, and creating long-term value, not short- term fixes. That’s the difference between being a vendor and being a partner that scales with purpose. Q What will be the defining factors that determine whether India’s renewable energy push translates into long-term operational resilience? Where does leadership in O&M need to go next to truly future-proof this transition? Praveen Kakulte: India’s renewable energy journey won’t be judged by megawatts installed, but by how reliably and ef - ficiently those assets perform over their lifetime. Long-term resilience will depend on robust lifecycle management, smart - er digital tools, and adaptive maintenance models that evolve with asset age and tech shifts. The ones in the renewable energy business have to move from reactive fixes to predictive and insight-driven O&M, using intelligent platforms and skilled teams, and upgrade assets to meet evolving codes for present and future readiness. Fu - ture-ready leadership means learning from assets continuous - ly and building a system that’s as dynamic as the transition itself ! 26 energetica INDIA- May-June_2026 INTERVIEW