Shravan Sampath

Shravan Sampath (born 10th May 1983) is a renewable energy entrepreneur based in India. Currently, Shravan is the founder CEO of Oakridge Energyhttp://www.oakridge.co.in, a solar company providing renewable energy solutions to industries, commercial establishments, utilities and residences.
== Early life ==
Shravan was born and brought up in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, and is the son of VS Sampath, the former Power Secretary and former Chief Election Commissioner of India. He has graduated in engineering from the Madras University and completed a masters in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. Shravan also is a certified corporate renewable procurement expert from the Imperial College, London.
== Career ==
Shravan has been working in the energy sector since 2006, starting his career with IBM business consultinghttp://www.ibm.com where he worked with leading power utilities in providing business and technology solutions to streamline their business. Subsequently, Shravan worked with Reliance Power, a leading power utility in India and developed thermal and renewable energy assets of over 2,500 MW. Between 2016 and 2018, Shravan has also been an independent director in Punj Lloyd Ltdhttp://punjlloydgroup.com..., and was instrumental in several initiatives to revive the group including sale of the renewable energy assets to IDFC Alternatives.
== Contributions to distributed solar energy in India==
In 2019, with Shravan as CEO, Oakridge Energy obtained India's first institutional line of credit for residential solar rooftop from dutch social impact fund Oikocredit, thereby creating a new business model of residential solar in renewable energy. This is credited as significant development as it creates avenues for inflow of capital into a new product in renewable energy.
In 2020, under Shravan's leadership, Oakridge Energy successfully solarized educational institutions in Delhi Government including Lady Irwin College with long-term Power purchase agreements at an extremely competitive t tariff of Rs. 3.13 / unit . At the launch of this project, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a plan to make Delhi into a solar city and an initiative to make solar a people's movement. In addition, Oakridge also solarized Government schools in the national capital region as part of a social impact program. This initiative was instrumental in developing India's first cluster of solarized schools to feed in electricity to the electric grid and generate savings of over Rs. 8.5 crores. Oakridge energy and Shravan in particular is credited as having taken a pivotal role in the project as one of the leading developers to pioneer this model. In 2021, Shravan developed India's first Agrivoltaic project to augment farmers incomes by providing elevated structures to enable farming under the solar farm. This solar farm was covered as being a model of farmer - solar partnership due to its unique design. Shravan is quoted as having said - "Solar plants can even be erected on farm land without hindering mechanised farming. "Our solar plant is elevated at a height of about 3.5 metre which allows regular agricultural activities and even mechanised farming on tractors,"
== Views on renewable policy ==
In the past, Shravan has written about the issue of level playing field between public sector and private sector projects in the energy sector in India. Shravan has also expressed concern at sectoral developments in a well-received policy piece on power sector reform. Shravan has also expressed his doubt at the Government of India's policy of encouraging solar project development in Ladakh, citing numerous logistical and project development challenges
In recent times, Shravan has expressed his reservations at imposition of safeguard duties on solar panels as it is likely to affect the growth of the sector. He has been quoted as saying - "These developments have upset the apple cart. Import duty ambiguity and sharp depreciation in the rupee are making developers go slow on new projects, he adds. Most solar power project components are imported."
Shravan has also been a vocal advocate of sectoral issues such as the relief required to Indian industry in the wake of corona virus and the impact on supply chain from China. Shravan has also been one of the key industry voices speaking up for the industry to obtain requisite reliefs from the impact of COVID 19 on project timelines and has been quoted for his views on the subject - "The last few months have been a difficult period for developers due to various challenges, and the extension gives comfort to lenders and financial institutions that projects commissioning would not face liquidated damages or bank guarantee encashment." In recent policy developments in rooftop solar making the distribution utilities responsible for capacity additions, Shravan has expressed satisfaction at the development and believes this will go a long way towards improving the sector
Category:Indian entrepreneur
Category:Indian people
Category:1983 births
Category:Births in Hyderabad, India