Renewable & Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Project Manager

Southern Company•Birmingham, AL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

This position serves as the Renewable and Distributed Energy Resource (DER) development manager with formal leadership and supervisory responsibilities. The role involves developing strategic approaches for the evaluation, development, and deployment of renewable resources and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) for the Retail Electric Operating companies of Southern Company. The position will support project development teams, lead system Technology Application Standards (TAS) and Technology Strategy Coordination (TSC) for emerging technologies, and provide performance management and leadership for team members. Additionally, the role supports regulatory filing requirements for asset certifications.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree is required
High degree of critical/strategic thinking to resolve high impact, complex and/or cross-functional problems.
Ability to communicate complex issues in a clear and understandable manner to a broad group of stakeholders
Demonstrated effective leadership, communication and interpersonal skills
Must be able to lead the activities of numerous direct and indirect reports and achieve business results in a cost effective and timely manner
Demonstrated ability to work in a dynamic and changing environment where goals and objectives may not always be clearly established or defined
The position works directly with other managers within System Planning and across the Planning and operating organizations of the retail electric operating companies and must be an excellent communicator.
The successful candidate must be comfortable with public speaking and must be capable of positively representing and defending the company against adversarial parties, in a diplomatic manner.
Demonstrate Southern Company Values – Safety First, Unquestionable Trust, Superior Performance, and Total Commitment
Safety focus and a strong personal safety record

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree is desired
An MBA and experience in power generation a plus
Desired experience in the areas of generation development, project management, project development, economic evaluations, and state or federal regulatory environment
Desired areas of knowledge include: life cycle cost analysis; avoided and marginal cost concepts; economic dispatch; Southern Company integrated resource planning process; generation and transmission planning processes; generation technologies and operation; federal and or legislation and rules governing renewable energy; typical power purchase agreement terms and conditions

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership and direction to evaluate the deployment of cost effective and reliably sufficient renewable resources into the Southern Company generation portfolio.
Provide strategic leadership and direction to evaluate the deployment of cost effective and reliably sufficient distributed energy resources into the Southern Company generation portfolio.
Develop strategies to maximize the value of renewable generation and distributed energy resources through their efficient integration across the Southern Company energy system.
Develop and deploy economical renewable solutions through evaluation of resource viability within the system footprint, customer and stakeholder engagement, process integration and alignment, technology innovation, and policy influence.
Lead efforts to develop operating company specific renewable generation project strategy and create robust, and economically sound evaluation techniques for continued integration of DERs and expansion of incremental DER technologies into business activities.
Lead efforts to ensure operating company owned renewable projects required to meet regulatory filings meet all regulatory standards for quality, compliance and expertise.
Lead efforts to assure that the team builds and maintains positive relationships with key internal and external parties to facilitate broad knowledge of development approaches and resource integration.
Lead efforts to engage external OEM’s to understand emerging issues with renewable and DER technologies such that optimal deployment can be ensured.
Provide cross-organizational support for developing projects as availability and business needs may require.
Lead a staff and budget with a focus on prioritizing future expenditures in areas of value and benefit to the company.
Ensure Southern style is exemplified through the team and in all interactions with internal and external customers, colleagues, and business contacts.
Lead the technology portfolio management process for renewable and DER technologies, screening based on qualitative and quantitative criteria, and the establishment of technology application standards.
Develop, maintain, and revise standards of renewable and DER technology attributes for all commercial evaluations and IRP uses that includes capital cost, O&M costs, typical performance metrics, general site requirements, system limitations, and flexibility.
Lead enterprise-wide project teams to investigate, evaluate, and recommend state-of-the-art deployment structures for renewable and DER energy supply technologies including customer sited applications.
Support the development of comparative economic analyses (e.g. levelized cost of energy, levelized cost of capacity) of renewable and DER technologies relevant to the retail OPCOs.
Inform System Planning’s methods for accurately modeling renewable and DER generation technologies.
Maintain current working knowledge of industry trends and published technology assessments and forecasts from entities such as S&P Global, BNEF, NREL, NETL, EIA, Lazard, and public disclosures from other utilities.
Develop new renewable and DER solution constructs for the Retail Operating companies.