Report by OD bureau; New Delhi: R. P. Sasmal, has assumed the charge of Director (Operations) of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) on 1st August, 2012. Prior to this, he was Executive Director (Operation Services) in the company. A graduate Engineer from Sambalpur University, Odisha, Shri Sasmal has more than 30 years of experience in power sector.

Shri Sasmal has handled multi disciplinary functions such as planning, monitoring and implementation of HVDC projects, EHV transmission systems and Load Despatch and Communication Systems.  He was instrumental in introducing the ± 800 kV multi terminal DC transmission system, under implementation in the country, which is first of its kind in the world. Under his guidance, the first unmanned operation of 400 kV sub-station at Bhiwadi was implemented as a pilot project.

He is a recipient of “Distinguished Member of CIGRE, 2012” and has published various technical papers on transmission systems especially on HVDC in various national and international professional forums/societies like IEEE and CIGRE. He is currently the national representative for India at CIGRE for HVDC and Power Electronics.  Before joining POWERGRID in 1993, he had worked in NTPC Ltd. for around 13 years.