Speaker 2021

Bio

Dr Ram Prasad Dhital is a member of the Electricity Regulatory Commission, Nepal. He is primarily responsible for planning and monitoring, institutional development, regulatory and external affairs at the Commission. He has also been vested with the duty of the spokesperson of the Commission. Dr. Dhital has invested its professional practice in the energy sector for more than 20 years. His experience include working with the Alternate Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) in Nepal, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) supported energy program in Afghanistan and AusAid supported energy program in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Dr. Dhital holds a Master’s and PhD Degree in Renewable Energy Engineering and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering. He has more than 15 research publications and conference paper written and presented at national and international platform .He is a certified Public-Private Partnership (PPP) professional, Professional Engineer and Technical Auditor.

Bio

Dr. Patricia "Paty" Romero-Lankao is a senior research scientist at NREL’s Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences. Her work primarily focuses on crucial intersections among energy and water systems, mobility, and the built environment in cities around the world. She has developed many innovative methods to examine how inequalities in income, education, and decision-making power across populations relate to the distribution of benefits or negative impacts associated with access to transportation, energy, and related technological innovations. She has also developed elicitation tools to examine the energy and mobility needs of women, elders, the working class, people of color, and other underrepresented groups to inform understanding and management of these needs.

Bio

Peter Warren is head of climate finance for innovation in the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). He manages the UK’s international climate finance investments (Official Development Assistance) and international policy for clean energy innovation. He previously led the former UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)’s evidence needs and analysis on smart energy. Peter previously worked in the International Energy Agency (IEA) on energy efficiency in emerging economies and worked as a Sustainability Manager in industry. Peter holds a PhD in energy policy from University College London (UCL), two multidisciplinary MSc degrees, a PgC and a BSc all in the energy and climate change field. Peter is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and is a part-time Lecturer in energy and climate policy at UCL (since 2013).

Bio

Dr Priyantha Wijayatunga Joined ADB in 2008 and is currently the Director, South Asia Energy Division. He was the founder Director General of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka and a Senior Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa. He holds a Doctorate in Power Systems Economics from the Imperial College London. He was also a regular Academic Visitor at Imperial College during the period 1993-1998 and has contributed to research involving costing of electricity transmission network services of the United Kingdom and Chile. He was the Chairman of the South Asia Forum for Infrastructure Regulators (SAFIR) in 2006/07. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Sustainable Energy Authority, Sri Lanka. He has contributed extensively in energy sector policy and regulatory activities and has co-authored many publications. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer, a Member of the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET), UK, Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka. He is a Past President of the Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association (SLEMA).

Bio

Dr. Thang Nam Do is a research fellow at the Grand Challenge Program Zero Carbon Energy for Asia Pacific at The Australian National University (ANU).

His current research projects include:

• Drivers and barriers to Vietnam’s solar PV and offshore wind power
• Vietnam’s success in solar and wind energy: Policy implications for ASEAN member states
• ASEAN cross-border electricity trade
• Carbon pricing options for Vietnam and ASEAN
• Solar, wind, and energy storage potential in Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Before joining the ANU, he worked with the Vietnam Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as Deputy Director General of International Cooperation, Deputy Director of Environmental Science, and Global Environment Facility (GEF)’s Operational Focal Point. He was also Chair of ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change, and national focal point of ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities, and Water Environment Partnership for Asia.

Bio

Dr. Yashkumar Shukla is Executive Director at Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE) at CEPT University, India. He has more than seventeen years of international experience in building energy-efficiency research and serves as a lead on several groundbreaking energy-efficiency research projects at CARBSE. He currently serves as a team lead of the technical assistance (TA) program by The Asian Development Bank (ADB) that supports developing member countries to improve energy efficiency, mitigate the risks of virus transmission, and ensure safe working conditions in public buildings by deploying efficient, clean, and smart centralized air-conditioning (CAC) systems.

Bio

Elena Rose is the Executive Director of Partnerships for Infrastructure (P4I), an Australian Government initiative to foster inclusive growth through sustainable infrastructure in Southeast Asia.

Elena is also Counsellor, Infrastructure at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. She has over 10 years’ experience in the public sector focusing on strategic policy, Australia’s engagement in the ASEAN region and development. In the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Elena has worked primarily on ASEAN, Australia’s Indo-Pacific agenda, geo-economics and at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. While with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, she worked on Northeast Asia, and on regional and economic architecture including ASEAN and the G20.

Prior to joining the Australian Public Service, Elena worked with the World Bank, the United Nations and non-government organisations.

Elena holds a dual Master of Laws from New York University and the National University of Singapore.

Bio

Ellen is the Programme Manager for the UK government's £70m International Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Programme and the policy lead on CCUS in developing countries. The programme uses Official Development Assistance to increase the technical and institutional knowledge of CCUS within developing countries by supporting pilot projects, capacity building, and the development of policy and regulatory frameworks. She is also the UK’s policy lead on industrial decarbonisation in developing countries, including managing the £15m industrial decarbonisation innovation fund under the UK’s £50m Clean Energy Innovation Facility Programme, which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies in developing countries. Ellen previously managed the UK’s international climate finance investments for offshore wind, coal transitions and air pollution abatement through the World Bank. She holds a bachelor's degree in international development from the University of East Anglia.

Bio

Engr. Jorifa Khatun started her career as an Assistant Engineer in Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) in 2000. From her early stage of employment, she has been working in Directorate of System Planning.

She has been working as a resource person of BPDB in renewable energy generation planner and also involved in comprehensive planning of power generation conventional & non-conventional energy sources by WASP, PDPath software and distribution plan for reliable supply of power. Review and comment on donor financed project’s ToR in relation to generation projects, energy efficiency, and demand side management and distribution project development.

In the meantime, she has been awarded Master’s Degree in Renewable Energy from University of Oldenburg, Germany through DAAD Scholarship in 2008 award was given by Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) for higher study and training in Germany.

After completing her Degree, she has joined same directorate of BPDB as Assistant Engineer in 2008. As of now, she has been working as ‘Deputy Director’ of the Directorate of System Planning. Ultimately, she has more than 20 years of experience on power generation and distribution plan.

She has strong background in generation and distribution plan also carbon emission model. Attending and speaking at various trainings and workshops, both at home and abroad, she has acquired a vast knowledge in all the aspects of the power sector.

It is to be mentioned that BPDB is the institutional partner of WePOWER. She has prepared LoA activities to support the objectives of WePOWER with the help of higher authority of BPDB. Jorifa has been nominated as focal point to work with WePOWER.

Bio

Entrepreneur with five years of experience as a McKinsey consultant specializing in the energy sector. Prior to starting Nuventura he was Co-Founder and Managing Director at the health-tech startup Sanubi. His academic background consists of having studied Nuclear Engineering at RWTH Aachen and Economics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. His main motivation is contributing to the energy transition by helping to make the use of SF6 - the world's strongest greenhouse gas - obsolete in the energy industry.

Bio

Flavio Fernández is Managing Director of DIgSILENT GmbH Germany. In his current position he is responsible for the areas Power System Consulting & Application Engineering. He coordinates DIgSILENT’s power system consultants’ team in Germany, the technical customer support and the international training program for its power system simulation software PowerFactory.

Flavio has over 15 years’ experience in electrical engineering and advanced power system simulation and has participated in numerous power system studies in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He has particular expertise in the fields of power system stability and control, integration of variable renewable generation and electro-magnetic transient analysis. He combines his main consulting activities with research work on dynamic power system modelling and participation in related CIGRE working groups.

Flavio Fernández can be reached at ffernandez@digsilent.de

Bio

Florian Kitt serves as Energy Specialist for the Asian Development Bank in Indonesia since 2017. Prior to that he worked for the OECD, the World Bank, and the private sector. He holds a Master degree in International Relations.