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Aparna VardekarChief Operating Officer
Portrait of Aparna Vardekar

Chief Operating Officer · India

AparnaVardekar

A station earns its return through the weeks after the outage.

My first job was in a service team, not a station leadership office.

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A station earns its return through the weeks after the outage.

I lead thermal-generation operations with a particular interest in what happens after the maintenance programme reports completion. The date matters, but it cannot alone explain whether the work addressed the finding, whether the next operating period supports the conclusion or which costs remain outside the reported figure. My fictional career begins in a service team and develops into responsibility for a two-station generating fleet.

At Varnedra Energy I lead 980 operating colleagues through six direct reports. The company’s four 300 MW units sit in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh; its headquarters are in Pune. My ₹480 Cr FY 2026–27 delegation covers non-fuel operating expense. It is not the fuel budget, a capital entitlement or the value of the generating assets. I keep those boundaries visible because a credible leadership account should explain the responsibility behind its scale.

The cases here preserve decisions that were inconvenient to report: an outage extended by five days, assemblies that did not fit the intended applications, and a supplier-support reduction I had to reconsider. They also examine a generation account in which station consumption cannot disappear between two attractive totals. All people, employers and results are invented to demonstrate the depth of material an actual operating leader could prepare.

The extra work stayed in the outage account

In 2023 an inspection-led change moved a 300 MW unit’s planned outage from 28 to 33 days. The original ₹42 Cr maintenance estimate became ₹50.4 Cr with the additional work. I retained the extra ₹8.4 Cr and the delay in the explanation, while keeping technical release and system coordination with the appropriate authorities. Subsequent observation did not become a promise about future reliability.

A stocked assembly still needed an application decision

A 2016 review examined twelve high-value spare assemblies against four planned applications. Nine were compatible; three required modification or replacement. The ₹1.6 Cr verification and rework expense was reported separately from inventory value. I supported the qualified engineering conclusion even though it reduced the apparent readiness implied by the stock list.

The earlier saving proposal was my responsibility

In 2010 I supported a ₹48 lakh annual reduction to a ₹2.4 Cr support agreement. Additional callout and standby later cost ₹39 lakh over four months. I had underestimated the support pattern the station still needed. The differing periods prevent a neat net-saving claim; the case retains the correction and the judgement that made it necessary.

Current focus

My current concern is the connection between maintenance commitments across the fleet and the people, parts and operating windows needed to deliver them. I want disagreements to appear before a date becomes a public promise. The same discipline applies to the generation account: every comparison needs a defined period and physical boundary, with the unresolved issue still visible.

Conversations I welcome

I am interested in carefully scoped operating mandates and a possible first non-executive appointment where this experience is relevant. Any discussion would depend on current employment, conflicts, preparation and realistic time. This is a fictional profile, not an offer of station operating advice or a real professional contact service.

1200 MW

Company installed capacity

Four 300 MW units across two stations; October 2026

980

Operating colleagues in my remit

Six direct reports; company workforce 1350

₹480 Cr

Delegated non-fuel expense

FY 2026–27; excludes fuel, separate capital and financing

I judge a maintenance programme by the operating responsibility it leaves behind. The calendar, the technical finding and the commercial account each tell part of the story. My work is to bring those accounts together without allowing a preferred date to settle a question that properly belongs to a qualified specialist. A difficult explanation today is better than a completion claim that the next operating period cannot support.

Aparna Vardekar

Chief Operating Officer

Areas of stewardship

Where accountability has been mine.

  1. IOutage execution and subsequent operating review
  2. IISpare suitability and maintenance preparation
  3. IIIStation-boundary performance interpretation
  4. IVFleet resource and service-scope decisions

Selected work

Decisions, and what they changed.

I

I kept the five-day extension in the maintenance result

In 2023 one of our 300 MW units entered a planned 28-day outage.

The full account

II

Twelve spare assemblies did not mean twelve ready applications

In 2016 our maintenance planning account referred to twelve high-value spare assemblies held for four intended applications across the fleet.

The full account

III

I asked the generation account to show its physical boundary

A 2025 quarterly review of our four-unit generating fleet used gross output prominently in the management discussion.

The full account

In the words of others

Trusted by those who appoint.

Aparna retained the engineering qualification when the schedule would have read better without it. In our fictional spare review, she made the commercial consequences visible without asking my team to certify an application we had not confirmed.
Mehul KavrelFictional head of station engineering; colleague on the 2016 spare review
I challenged the original support reduction. Aparna later acknowledged that she had not given our attendance evidence enough weight, and kept the correction in the account she presented to management.
Nandita BelvankarFictional station services manager; colleague during the 2010 contract correction

The journal

Perspective, set down with care.

An invitation

Contact

I am interested in carefully scoped operating mandates and a possible first non-executive appointment where this experience is relevant. Any discussion would depend on current employment, conflicts, preparation and realistic time. This is a fictional profile, not an offer of station operating advice or a real professional contact service.

Open to
  • Board appointments
  • Speaking invitations
Write to Aparna

office@aparnavardekar.example