Principal, Natural Gas Strategy

North American Electric Reliability Corporation

8h•Remote

About The Position

The Principal, Natural Gas Strategy, applies leadership, industry experience and subject-matter expertise to support the ERO’s efforts to independently assess and report on the overall reliability, adequacy, and associated risks to the interconnected North American bulk power system. This role carries responsibilities for NERC’s strategy to identify, assess, and facilitate ongoing and future mitigation of the risks that arise from the growing reliance on natural gas for electricity generation. The leader in this position will execute technically sound methods and approaches for analyzing natural gas fuel supply risks to electricity generation, with application to resource adequacy and bulk power system reliability assessments. The leader will collaborate and engage with natural gas industry leaders and energy infrastructure stakeholders in mitigating identified risks to generator fuel supplies. The Principal, Natural Gas Strategy, is part of the reliability assessment team that provides superior technical analysis and designs ERO processes for developing and publishing NERC’s reliability assessment reports, including the Long-Term Reliability Assessment, seasonal assessments, the State of Reliability report, and special assessments. The Principal, Natural Gas Strategy, reports to the Manager, Reliability Assessments.

Requirements

BS in engineering or applied sciences. Candidates with a non-engineering degree but with strong experience can be considered for a similar position as an analyst.
Ten or more years of experience in resource planning, power system planning, or natural gas supply and infrastructure analysis, with proficiency with PowerGem SERVM or Plexos or similar tools.
Familiarity and with publicly available historical energy data sets (EIA, DOE, FERC, Natural Gas Pipeline Electronic Bulletin Boards (EBBs), etc.) as well as any pertinent proprietary data sets.
Exceptional interpersonal and communications skills, both oral and written.
Strong statistical, analytical, critical thinking skills.
Strong leadership skills, with the ability to interact effectively with people from many levels of industry and government.
Ability to facilitate groups of industry technical experts and to work effectively and closely with peers in a teamwork environment.
Strong organizational skills.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree and professional certifications or credentials
Experience preparing regional and/or multiregional bulk power system reliability and adequacy assessments.
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word).
Experience in NERC Reliability Standards, ERO functions, or other industry regulatory roles.

Responsibilities

Design and lead studies and analysis to integrate natural gas fuel supply system capabilities and constraints under normal and extreme weather conditions into bulk power system resource adequacy and reliability assessments.
Develop recommendations and supporting justification for NERC, Regional Entities, regulators, policymakers, and electric industry and natural gas industry stakeholders.
Collaborate with natural gas industry trade groups, technical groups, and industry representatives from the fuel supply chains, regulators, and policymakers, on the full range of activities that NERC prioritizes, as well as external initiatives and recommendations.
Develop coordinated data requests and manage timely collection of reliability data from NERC registered entities as needed to support the identification of risks in NERC’s reliability assessments.
Analyze resource adequacy studies performed using PowerGEM SERVM or Plexos and other state-of-the-art methods to identify future periods of electricity supply shortfall risk, including fuel supply risks, and document findings in reports, presentations, and other media.
Develop, prepare, and write white papers and assessment reports (long-term, seasonal, and special reliability assessments) using project management principles.
Interface with Regional Entities, government agencies, and regulators to review data and information and coordinate reliability assessment activities to address reliability issues.
Establish and maintain relationships with industry, regulatory, and governmental organizations involved with analysis of reliability and adequacy and electric system and natural gas fuel infrastructure (e.g., DOE, FERC, EIA, RTO/ISOs, IEEE).
Proactively identify and suggest solutions to technical analysis and data problems.
Train and support team members in gas – electric interdependency risk monitoring and analysis techniques, tools, and methods.
Support internal coordination with the Performance Analysis, Event Analysis, Engineering, Standards, and Compliance teams, as needed.
Perform other duties as assigned.