Power Systems Research Engineer – Grid Modeling & Planning

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

1d•Onsite

About The Position

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget. Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus. The Energy and Environment Directorate (EED) delivers science and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system; and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management. The Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division (EI&BD), part of EED, is accelerating the transition to an efficient, resilient, and secure energy system through basic and applied research. We leverage a strong technical foundation in power and energy systems and advanced data analytics to drive innovation, transform markets, and shape energy policy. Within this division, the Power System Modeling Group (PSMG) develops advanced simulation, analysis, and optimization tools to understand and enhance grid performance across all levels, from the bulk energy system to the distribution grid. PNNL seeks a creative and inter-disciplinary power system engineer to develop model enhancements for conventional power system models (primarily production cost models and expansion planning models) to represent changing system constraints and dependencies imposed by the rapid growth of our Nation’s energy system. The selected candidate is expected to participate in the development, deployment, and application of open-source power system models that integrate tools for capacity expansion, resource adequacy, production cost modeling, and powerflow to answer complex questions across multiple modeling regimes. The successful candidate will use integrated, multi-scale models to explore and quantify the benefits of novel management and optimization strategies that coordinate electric power decision considering evolving policies and new load paradigms. The candidate will use these tools to investigate how policies and incentives will impact our nation’s electrical infrastructure and recommend strategies to mitigate future challenges.

Requirements

BS/BA and 5+ years of relevant production cost and expansion planning model work experience -OR-
MS/MA and 3+ years of relevant production cost and expansion planning model work experience -OR-
PhD with 1+ year of relevant production cost and expansion planning model experience

Nice To Haves

Experience in using and/or contributing to the development of large-scale power system optimization models, using either commercial or open-source tools.
Understanding of power grid operations, transmission and resource planning, and long-term investment.
Knowledge of utility industry economics and business processes.
Broadly apply principles, standards work, theories and concepts of systems engineering to the development and implementation of new tools including applications, algorithms, models, and visualization techniques.
Experience in grid applications, software development, or active participation in related national and international forums for power system modeling.
Experience in stochastic optimization and dynamic programming.
Fluency in one or more programming or scripting languages (e.g., GAMS, Julia, perl, Python, etc.).
Experience working in an inter-disciplinary team.
Demonstrated success of articulating research through publications, particularly in top-tier journals.

Responsibilities

Provide subject matter expertise within multi-disciplinary teams with a focus on power system optimization, resource adequacy, reliable capacity expansion, and the related policies that must be enacted.
Provide electric system simulations with a good working knowledge of grid topology and transmission planning, operational costs and optimization, system constraints, and financial analysis.
Lead model enhancements activities and participate in the design of simulation experiments, evaluation of technology performance, or development of scientific and engineered solutions to assess or solve a variety of technical problems.
Broadly apply theory to the development and implementation of new tools including applications, algorithms, models, and visualization.
Publish research results, targeting peer reviewed journals and other written reports.
Build strong teams for project execution that transfer knowledge through the organization.
Mentor junior staff and other engineers and collaborate with senior level staff from within PNNL.
Travel to execute projects, build relationships, and grow leadership in the field.
Manage individual tasks or projects; including directing other staff, ensuring milestones are met, and communicating with senior management.
Ensure safe operating practices are followed.
Effectively communicate engineering challenges and solutions to a wide range of audiences.
Effectively communicate with senior engineers to ensure high-quality delivery of research projects on budget and on time.
Ability to deal with ambiguity.

Benefits

Employees and their families are offered medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, robust telehealth care options, several mental health benefits, free wellness coaching, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, basic life insurance, disability insurance, employee assistance program, business travel insurance, tuition assistance, relocation, backup childcare, legal benefits, supplemental parental bonding leave, surrogacy and adoption assistance, and fertility support.
Employees are automatically enrolled in our company-funded pension plan and may enroll in our 401 (k) savings plan with company match.
Employees may accrue up to 120 vacation hours per year and may receive ten paid holidays per year.

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