Energetica India Magazine

The practical mechanism is straightforward: sensors on trans- formers, feeders and substations feed continuous data to mod- els that learn what ‘normal’ looks like, so they can flag a de - veloping fault – a transformer running hot, an early vibration signature – weeks before it becomes an outage. Q What are the biggest challenges utilities face in deploying AI and IoT across critical power infrastructure, and how are you helping to address them? Meenakshi Vashist: The barriers utilities face aren’t really about the AI models; they’re about the environment those models have to operate in. Most distribution infrastructure runs on legacy operational technology that was never de- signed to be networked, so connecting it without proper IT/ OT segmentation opens real cybersecurity exposure, where a single breach can cascade well beyond one utility. Add a short- age of in-house data science and OT-security talent, patchy network infrastructure in many circles, poor interoperability between vendors, and high upfront deployment costs, and it’s clear why so many promising pilots stall before scale-up. TekUncorked Distribution Grid Management Platform acts as a predictive intelligence layer which provides intelligence about grid assets, nodes and the network. Each application can act as a standalone offering, like TekUncorked DERMS, DT Intelligence and allows discoms to plan their digitisation journey in a structured fashion. However, rather than frag- mented platforms, each application plugs into the others un- der the CERTIN-certified end-to-end grid management plat - form GridIoT.ai. The IoT devices combined with AI alerts allow the operators to see, act, predict and heal the grid dy- namically and continuously. Q Looking ahead, what policy, regulatory, and technology interventions are needed to accelerate the adoption of AI-enabled smart grids and support India’s energy transition? Meenakshi Vashist: Three things would accelerate this mean- ingfully. First, data governance: the Electricity (Amendment) Bill doesn’t yet address who owns grid and consumption data, how AI-driven decisions get audited, or how consumers get redress when an automated system gets something wrong – that clarity needs to come before AI adoption scales fur- ther. Second, interoperability standards for AMI, ADMS and DERMS platforms, so utilities aren’t locked into single ven - dors and DER integration doesn’t turn into a patchwork of incompatible systems. Third, incentives that reward utilities for investing in the software and analytics layer, not just the hardware. RDSS has rightly pushed smart metering hard, but the value shall only show up once that data is actually being used for automated decisions, not just billing. The emerging idea of a ‘Digital India Energy Stack’ – the architecture needed for cost-reflective tariffs and eventual peer-to-peer energy trading – is the right direction. Getting the regulatory and data framework right now will determine how fast that vision becomes real. Q What advice would you offer to women aspiring for lead- ership roles in the renewable energy sector, and how can the industry better support gender diversity? Meenakshi Vashist: The numbers are honestly still sobering – women make up only about 11 percent of India’s renew- able energy workforce, against a global average closer to 32 percent, and even that limited participation skews toward non-technical roles like HR and finance rather than engineer - ing, operations, or on-site O&M. Encouragingly, about 44 per - cent of companies surveyed now have at least one woman on their board, so the leadership pipeline is starting to open up, even if slowly. My advice to women aspiring to lead in this sector: build your credibility on technical depth first. It’s harder for anyone to gatekeep a leadership seat when you’re the person who un- derstands the technology best. Don’t wait to be invited into the highly technical or on-site roles – ask for them. And find or build a peer network early, because a lot of the barriers here are structural, not personal, and they’re easier to push through together. For the industry, the fix isn’t another mentorship programme alone; it’s addressing the structural issues directly: making on-site and O&M roles genuinely workable for women through practical things like site facilities, travel policies and safety protocols, building technical-education pipelines that active- ly recruit women, and being deliberate about who gets spon- sored – not just mentored – into leadership tracks. I’ve built my own path in this industry by leaning into the technology first, and I’d like to see that become a more common route, not an exception. WOMAN INFLUENCER 64 energetica INDIA- Jul-Aug_2026