Rahul Walawalkar, has over 10 years experience as an IT and energy management consultant. He received PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. He obtained Masters in Energy Management & Advanced Certification in Energy Technology at New York Institute of Technology in 2003. He is currently associated with Customized Energy Solutions as a Sr. Energy Consultant. He is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and Certified Demand Side Management (CDSM) Professional. He has also worked as an Energy & IT Analyst with various companies including EPS Capital Corp, Alliance to Save Energy and Tata Infotech Ltd (now part of Tata Consultancy Services). He conceptualized and developed an award winning energy efficient lighting design software, Eco Lumen in 1999.
He is recipient of numerous awards including Computer Society of India's "Young IT Professional Award" and NYIT’s “Energy Management Graduate Faculty Award”. Rahul’s expertise include use of IT solutions for evaluation and implementation of energy management programs for end users and electric utilities. Rahul has received the American Public Power Association’s DEED scholarship for 3 years since 2002 for research on issues related to demand side management and distributed generation. Rahul has written and presented over 35 technical papers in various international conferences and has also written a chapter in the book “Web based Energy Information and Control Systems”. He was editor of ‘Energy Productivity News’, the newsletter of Council of Energy Efficiency Companies in India in 2000-01.
Rahul is currently conducting research on “Energy Storage Market Analysis Study” for a NYSERDA and NETL funded research initiative to assess potential for integration of Energy Storage application in competitive energy markets for energy, capacity, demand response and ancillary services. He is also working on research on “Impact of Demand Response on market power in deregulated energy markets” with focus on demand response programs offered by north-eastern ISOs: PJM Interconnection, NYISO and ISO-NE.
Rahul has worked on evaluating in-house energy management programs for client facilities all over US and identifying opportunities to optimize energy consumption in 2003-04. He has conducted detailed study of utility billing and energy usage pattern, studying the scheduling and optimization opportunities for lighting and HVAC systems using EMS and SCADA systems. His responsibilities included benchmarking of the facilities and identifying environmental impact of energy management. Facilities covered included 6 million Sq. Ft. office complex in Texas, which covered one of the largest single occupancy commercial buildings in the world.
During 2002-03, he developed a web site and toolkit for the USAID and ASE funded international project called Watergy (Energy saving in municipal water systems around the world). During 1998-2001, he was responsible for developing in-house energy management programs for Tata Infotech Ltd in India. He also conducted the techno-commercial feasibility of the “Energy Conservation Measures” worth approximately US$240,000 with a payback period of under 4 years as part of a performance contracting project. During this time, he also coordinated a project for ergonomic evaluation of modern IT offices in India with National Institute for Industrial Engineering in India.
Rahul is member of various professional organizations including AEE, ASHRAE, IEE, IEEE and IAEE.