Grid Innovation Engineer, Expert
Requisition ID # 165201
Job Category: Engineering / Science
Job Level: Individual Contributor
Business Unit: Engineering, Planning & Strategy
Work Type: Hybrid
Job Location: Oakland
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 scaling up integration with distributed energy resources (DERs)
to transform the electric grid from the edges inward.
PG&E is seeking an experienced energy business professional to join the Grid Innovation team within
the larger Utility Partnerships & Innovation (UPI) group. The Grid Innovation team 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, test and operationalize product
strategies, roadmaps and implementation plans for innovation. The current focus of the Grid
Innovation team is to build and advance policies, products and processes to operationalize
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as solar PV, battery storage, flexible loads and microgrids.
This team is an important bridge between PG&E’s DER policy and strategy and how PG&E will plan
for, interconnect and interact with or operate DERs on a day-to-day basis.
Position Summary
The Expert Grid Innovation Engineer will primarily be supporting a mixture of DER enablement and
load growth scaling initiatives as part of the larger Distributed Energy Resource Management System
(DERMS) Initiative. The initial DERMS use cases are designed to unlock new capacity on the
distribution grid and include: Flexible Service Connection, Flexible Generation Interconnection and
the operationalization of Distribution Investment Deferral projects (i.e. Non Wires Alternatives). The
focus of the Grid Innovation Engineer will be on the development and implementation of these
use cases and the development of new operational and business processes to support these use
cases at scale as a standard PG&E offerings and programs.
A strong applicant will be an organized self-starter who is biased towards action and can operate
with general direction only, to fill in the blanks and drive concepts to reality, while being mindful and
sensitive to building consensus and buy-in across the organization. This execution-oriented
candidate will collaborate with PG&E subject matter experts and external partners across the
organization and with other utilities and industry partners and vendors. The role is expected to have
the technical, analytical, and power systems skills to structure analysis, process data, and at times run
system studies within this role itself and the project managerial skills to be the point person for a
multiple stakeholder cross-Utility initiative.
This position is based out of PG&E’s General Office in downtown Oakland, CA.
The team has a hybrid work model primarily working remotely with the expectation of working from
Oakland office several days per month minimum. In-person activities will focus on synchronous
collaboration, affinity building, ideation, or planning activities. Most day-to-day work (individual and
collaborative) will be performed remotely. The role may also require occasional travel other PG&E
facilities throughout the PG&E service territory.
This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and your assigned work location based on
business need. The assigned work location will be within the PG&E Service Territory. Work location
will be determined by hiring leader and successful candidate. This position is classified as a “hybrid
remote” (0-3 days in the office) and also may require occasional travel within the PG&E service
territory to project site locations.
PG&E is providing the salary range that the company in good faith believes it might pay for this
position at the time of the job posting. This compensation range is specific to the locality of the job.
The actual salary paid to an individual will be based on multiple factors, including, but not limited to,
specific skills, education, licenses or certifications, experience, market value, geographic location, and
internal equity.
A reasonable salary range is:
Bay Area Minimum: $140,000
Bay Area Maximum: $238,000
And/Or
California Minimum: $133,000
California Maximum: $226,000
Job Responsibilities
Lead the development and implementation of PG&E’s Flexible Service Connection and Flexible
Generation Interconnection programs.
• Manage the end-to-end site development process from customer intake, to technical site
analysis, to customer agreements, to site development and commissioning and operations.
• Support site evaluation engineering analysis to identify suitability for participation in the Flex
Connect programs.
• Lead customer engagement activities to recruit and onboard customer sites as pilots to test
the DERMS use cases initially focused on facilitating cost-effective interconnection of DERs
and new load service connections.
• Work with internal partner stakeholders in Electric Distribution Planning, Service Planning,
Clean Energy Transportation, and others to develop end-to-end business process
integrations to support the site development process.
Mature Flex Service/Gen Connect as standard offering that can scale over time.
• Create the roadmap identifying the key steps to get to future scaled programs and standard
offerings (regulatory/tariff, customer program(s), process dev for service/distribution
planning, commissioning, operations)
• Identify near term and future roles and responsibilities for the scaled program.
• Support development of the business case for existing and emergent DERMS use cases and
programs.
Support the Grid Innovation Portfolio
• Role will evolve to take technical leadership roles within emergent R&D and Innovation
projects within the Grid Innovation portfolio.
• Provide teammates with technical support on other projects and initiatives as needed
potentially including DER Integration and Microgrid project implementation
• Act as a technical subject matter expert in relevant policy and regulatory discussions, working
groups or proceedings (e.g. High DER OIR, Rule 21 working groups, Smart Inverter Working
Group etc.)
Qualifications
Minimum:
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or equivalent experience
Internal
• Experience with grid modeling software (e.g. CYMDIST, PSLF, Aspen, etc.)
• 7 years of electric utility related experience
Desired:
• Electrical Engineering Degree with Power Systems emphasis
• Masters of Science in Engineering,
• Electrical Engineering Professional Engineer (P.E.) license
• Experience deploying technology to the field at PG&E and understanding of PG&E project
management processes
• Experience leading technology pilots and/or implementations, with a focus on
emerging/innovative technology
• Strong technical acumen with the ability to understand different distribution management
applications and DER functions and platforms.
• Demonstratable understanding of DERs and flexible loads such as solar PV, inverters, energy
storage, conventional generation, microgrid controllers and/or off grid energy systems
• Understanding of distribution grid design, system planning/operations engineering practices
and tools (e.g., CYME, or other equivalent software for power system modeling)
• Knowledge and experience with DER (Distributed Energy Resource) communications
protocols – IEEE 2030.5, CSIP 2.1, Open ADR etc.
• Policy experience on Electric Rule 21 and interconnection tariff issues
• Experience leading cross cutting programs or technology deployments, with a focus on
emerging/innovative technologies and creating new process & structure for rapid scale-up.
Desired Characteristics:
• Biased towards action
• Concise
• Passionate
• Able to operate at different levels of abstraction
• Outcome focused while understanding and adhering to process where necessary
• Empathic and curious – has an ability to seek to understand while driving towards shared
outcomes
• 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