Senior Performance Engineer

About The Role
This position will work within the Asset Management team, which is responsible for the technical management of a growing portfolio of distributed generation projects located across the United States. This position reports to the Sr. Director of Technical Asset Management. As a senior performance engineer in the renewable industry, you will be responsible for analyzing and interpreting data related to power plant performance, modeling, and prediction. Your work will help inform strategic decision-making and improve operational efficiency in the industry. You will collaborate closely with engineers, O&M teams, project managers, software team and business stakeholders to identify opportunities for data-driven insights and solutions.

Primary Responsibilities

• Collect, clean, and analyze large data sets related to power plant performance, modeling, and prediction.
• Develop predictive models and algorithms to forecast power plant performance and troubleshoot underperforming PV systems, identify potential component failures and modeling issues, and recommend corrective actions to meet guaranteed capacity and energy production targets.
• Proficiency with photovoltaic performance modeling tools such as PVsyst, PVlib Python, NREL SAM and other PV software and models.
• Proficiency in calculating different types of plant and equipment loss such as, but not limited to, soiling, tracker, temperature, clipping, inverter efficiency, DC/AC wiring.
• Proficiency in calculating KPIs such as availability (e.g. plant, inverter and tracker), performance ratio, and energy performance index by using algorithms.
• Assist data scientist and software team in the development of programming code to automate internal and external reporting requirements and analysis.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop and implement data-driven solutions that improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.
• Work with stakeholders to identify their requirements for data analysis, model development, and performance optimization, and work with the team to deliver solutions that meet those requirements.
• Communicate findings and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders in a clear and concise manner.

Basic Qualifications

• Master's degree in a relevant field, such as computer science, data science, math, physics, and/or engineering such as electrical and 4-5 years of combined experienced in performance engineering, resource modeling (PVSyst) and data analytics.
• Strong understanding of photovoltaic system modeling and simulation, preferably with experience using PVLib and PVsyst.
• Two years of project management experience.
• Experience with Python, R, and/or other programming skills.
• Experience in the use of business intelligence tools and other analytical tools (e.g. PowerBI, Tableau, Plotly, Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib)
• Proven track record of SCADA analysis of discrete event, time series, and plant performance assessment preferred.
• Proficiency with database query language such as SQL.
• Strong quantitative analytic skills with advanced MS Excel modeling skills (inc. VBA and/or macros).
• Experience with operation, design and/or analysis of AC and DC electric power systems.
• Data mining
• Strong critical thinking skills and ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

The Ideal Candidate Will Have

• Experience working in the power industry, specifically in performance analysis and modeling in the PV solar industry
• Experience in conducting performance evaluation of PV plant performance testing by using standards such as ASTM and IEC.
• Knowledge of SCADA and DAS (e.g. Also Energy, GPM, Powerfactors, etc.)
• Experience working in a cloud environment (e.g. AWS, Azure).
• Knowledge of machine learning algorithms and statistical methods.
• Database management skills preferred
• Familiarity with CMMS systems preferred
• PMP or other project management certification