Grid Innovation Engineer - Pacific Gas and Electric Company - San Francisco/Oakland CA

[Charipar, Kristin (Law)]

Grid Innovation Engineer

Pacific Gas and Electric Company - San Francisco/Oakland CA

Department Overview

Help us change the electric utility industry from the inside! Join a small, high-performing team within Pacific Gas & Electric Company that is working on a portfolio of exciting and innovative projects to transform the electric grid into a smarter grid. The Grid Innovation team is charting the future of the utility and the energy industry as part of the Analytics, Innovation, & Strategy division of PG&E.

Grid Innovation evaluates and demonstrates emerging technologies, concepts and processes that PG&E will need to design and operate the resilient energy system of the future. Toward that end, the team works collaboratively with diverse stakeholders across the enterprise to design, build and test product strategies, roadmaps and implementation plans for innovation. The current focus of the Grid Innovation team is to build and advance products and processes to operationalize Distributed Energy Resources including battery energy storage (BES), Solar PV, microgrids and Remote Grid​ Solutions.

The Remote Grid team is a growing initiative within Grid Innovation whose mission is to deploy a new concept for utility service using local, permanently islanded Standalone Power Systems (typically solar, batteries, and fuel-powered generation). This radical form of utility service using remote microgrids is being rapidly developed through an ambitious “intrapreneurial” venture with the driving focus of reducing wildfire risk for rural electric customers across Northern and Central California. The objective of the Remote Grid team is to develop and validate the concept and productize Remote Grid solutions as standard offerings, such that they can be considered alongside other service arrangements and/or wildfire risk mitigation activities. In addition to reducing wildfire risk, Remote Grids and other line elimination tools are a cost-effective solution to address rebuild, reliability and capacity needs for traditionally high cost to serve customers.  

See recent media coverage from PG&E here, local news video here and here, and article here.

Position Summary

This Grid Innovation Engineer will primarily be supporting the design and deployment of Remote Grid projects as part of PG&E’s Remote Grid Initiative. This hire will serve as the project engineer for multiple simultaneous Remote Grid projects, taking full ownership of the technical execution of each project to PG&E standards – with the collaboration and mentorship of experienced engineers on the Remote Grid team.

A strong applicant will be an organized and diligent collaborator, proactively driving a broad range of technical and adjacent tasks to successfully deliver safe, reliable, high-quality Standalone Power System assets within schedule and budget targets. This execution-oriented candidate will collaborate with PG&E technical subject matter experts and external EPC vendors to execute pilot projects, acting in a sales engineering capacity during planning  phases and transitioning into an owner’s engineer role throughout RFP procurement processes, vendor selection, detailed design, construction, commissioning, and release to operations.

This position has the option to be based out of PG&E’s General Office complex, which is transitioning to downtown Oakland, CA, or may be based from another work location in PG&E’s service territory. The role will also require travel to the field sites throughout the PG&E service territory.

Job Responsibilities

Execute Assessment (Planning) phase technical tasks for Remote Grid projects including:

• Load data gathering and desktop, remote site assessment
• Site walk downs for solar access and constructability
• Solar yield modeling in PVSyst
• Microgrid energy modeling in HOMER Pro
• Energy and power capacity sizing
• Preliminary equipment layouts
• Budgetary estimates for project costs

Support Execution (Design/Construct) phase tasks for viable Remote Grid projects including:

• Rapidly iterate early stage designs in lock step with active customer dialogs to shape SPS layouts and other design requirements to meet customer needs
• Develop RFP packages, especially technical submittals
• Create contract load basis documents from available customer load data sources to provide basis of contractor bids and final contracted designs
• Evaluate technical content from vendor bids to validate scope, cost, and qualifications to support contract awards
• Work with agencies and internal specialists to determine air permitting, vegetation management, and fire suppression requirements for each project
• Support discretionary permitting processes such as CEQA
• Develop expertise in PG&E emergent Standalone Power System standard technical specification
• Explain and enforce PG&E specifications for executed EPC contract scopes
• Support review of EPC vendor submittals including

• Electrical, mechanical, and/or civil plansets
• Vendor-generated microgrid energy models [in HOMER] and equipment sizing
• Equipment specifications for PV panels, inverters, controllers, generators, generator controllers, Automatic Transfer Switches, protective relay packages, switchgears, and other components as needed
• Factory, inspection, commissioning, functional and performance testing results and reports
• Operations & Maintenance Manuals
• Site safety plans
• Technical info related to permitting exhibits such as air emissions permits, NEPA or CEQA processes
• Participate in system commissioning and performance testing activities
• Oversee PG&E technical work beyond EPC contractor scope for SPS deployments

• Help coordinate Distribution & service facility retrofits in scope of Remote Grid conversions
• Support Initial energization of customers from the Remote Grid
• Support mapping of new Remote Grids in PG&E applications such as GIS and DMS
• Coordinate operational Go-Live process planning and execution to facilitate rigorous release to operation of completed SPS units

Support refinement of Remote Grid process, procedures, and standards

• Capture quantitative and qualitative learnings from SPS installation project experience, identifying improvement opportunities for specifications and standards

Qualifications

Minimum:

• Bachelor’s in Engineering from an accredited college or relevant job-experience
• 2 years of job-related experience
• Demonstratable technical knowledge of solar PV, inverters, energy storage, fuel-powered generation, microgrid controllers and/or off grid energy systems

Desired:

• Master’s in Engineering
• Electric utility industry experience
• Experience deploying technology to the field at PG&E and understanding of PG&E project management processes
• Understanding of distribution grid design, system planning/operations engineering practices and tools (e.g., CYME, HOMER or other equivalent software for power system modeling)
• Experience deploying distributed energy resources with a developer or EPC firm in a sales engineering or project engineering capacity
• Experience with data analytics (Excel and SQL minimum; Pandas, NumPy, or R desired)
• Experience modeling and designing microgrids using tools such as HOMER 
• Experience running procurement solicitations for technology solutions and EPC including vendor bid process, technical specification and technology selection.
• Protection System Engineering experience
• Experience leading technology pilots and/or implementations, with a focus on emerging/innovative technology
• Strong verbal / written communication and presentation skills
• Ability to work in a matrixed environment and a positive execution-oriented mentality
• Ability to be creative, versatile, efficient and productive in the face of ambiguity

Desired Characteristics

• Bias toward action
• Ability to effectively communicate highly complex ideas with credibility, confidence, and clarity to diverse audiences using a variety of media
• Ability to solve unique and complex problems, anticipating issues and developing innovative solutions
• Ability to handle multiple projects and stakeholders and work in a fast-paced environment
• Flexibility in project communication, execution and problem approach when coordinating across various stakeholders.

 

Apply online here: https://jobs.pge.com/job/san-francisco/grid-innovation-engineer-flexible-location/29673/13661664880