Swagata Sharma

Associate Planning Engineer, New York Independent System Operator

India

Associate Planning Engineer| New York Independent System Operator

Address

India

What I Do

I am a Planning Engineer in the System Resource and Planning department at the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). I carry out studies to evaluate the reliability of New York (NY) bulk electric system and to make sure that NY has enough resources to keep the lights on in the future. As we transition into a smart grid, it is extremely crucial for resource planners like us to factor in important drivers such as economic conditions, policy changes, environmental impacts, technological improvements, demographic shifts, etc., which will affect the grid of the future in an unprecedented way. Over the next 30 years, electric grid will change dramatically, with lots of renewable energy generation from solar, wind and hydro and me and my team at NYISO are working on proactive response to future grid complexities where we can anticipate trouble and react accordingly.
Inspiration

My parents are my biggest inspiration.
Want to be an Engineer?

Engineering is a great choice as it builds up your skills and expertise to impact thousands of lives every day. As an engineer, you can use your imagination to solve problems and design different ways of making things way cooler and better. Along the way, you will team up with amazing people to work on big, complex real life problems that will challenge you in every way. Life as an engineer is never dull.

Swagata is a Planning Engineer at NYISO. She performs complex power flow studies to evaluate the reliability of the New York state electricity grid. Prior to working at NYISO, she worked as the only female power engineer in a male dominated power consultancy firm in South Dakota and understands the importance of presence of women in engineering. She is an active member of Women in NYISO (WIN) and Women in Communication Engineering (WICE) that encourages and support girls/women to understand the opportunities available to them in engineering. She is also a volunteer judge for Future City competition in Albany which is a project-based learning program where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. She is also an active member of Toastmasters International. Besides being a passionate power engineer, she also enjoys reading and swimming.