Sunil Cherian is the Founder and CEO of Spirae, a company that specializes in digital platforms for integrating high levels of renewables and Distributed Energy Resources for a wide range of applications ranging from island and resilience microgrids to energy markets participation and DER management for Energy as a Service business models. Since founding Spirae in 2002, he has been focused on productizing distributed energy software and growing the company’s intellectual property portfolio, customer base and strategic partnerships.

Prior to Spirae, Dr. Cherian founded Sixth Dimension, Inc. for providing communication and control technologies for the electricity industry and served as its CEO from 1997 to 2002. Dr. Cherian has extensive experience in renewable energy integration, microgrids, and distributed energy resources management for end-use and utility applications and holds two patents related to distributed control of electric power systems. He has been involved in shaping the distributed energy industry for over twenty years through various DOE initiatives, Gridwise Alliance, and the Fort Collins Zero Energy District. He has served as Board member of Colorado Cleantech Industry Association, Advisor to the Rocky Mountain Institute’s e-Lab Initiative, the NY REV initiative, and been featured in the Smithsonian Institution’s Places of Invention exhibit as an energy innovator.