Ushakar Jha

Role: Facilitator

Ushakar is a licensed civil engineer with over two decades of experience in the field of hydropower and pump storage projects. His expertise includes design engineering, detailed project planning, project cost estimation, power production modeling, and project management. Ushakar has spent the last decade advancing hydro projects at the leading hydropower development company Rye Development. Prior to this, he worked at the globally renowned firm, SNC Lavalin. Currently, as the Vice President of Project Engineering at Rye, Ushakar is responsible for overseeing all technical dimensions of the projects. He manages a portfolio of 18 active FERC licensed new hydropower projects, which vary in capacity from 5 MW to 50 MW. Additionally, he supervises 8 new pumped storage projects, each with a capacity ranging between 250 MW to 1200 MW. Ushakar is experienced in coordinating multidisciplinary teams, ensuring smooth interactions between subconsultants, equipment providers, contractors, and various stakeholders. He is also the principal investigator for various initiatives with National Labs such as Oak Ridge, NREL, Argonne, and PNNL labs. Ushakar is also selected as Industry Mentor for the Department of Energy I-Corps Program, a 10-week entrepreneurial development program for DOE national lab researchers. He is also an active participant and contributor to the Department of Energy’s HydroWIRES (Water Innovation for a Resilient Electric System) initiative. Ushakar has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering and an MBA from the Hult International Business School.