Senior Reliability Assessments Engineer

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Senior Reliability Assessments Engineer

At WECC, we enhance the lives of 90 million people by identifying and mitigating risks to the Bulk Power System (BPS) in the West. The grid is changing quickly as environmental regulations, economics, technology, and customer demands continue to push the power industry to new limits. The Senior Reliability Assessments Engineer promotes BPS reliability by providing technical expertise, leadership, and support to key programs at WECC.

Working in the Reliability Assessments department, the Senior Reliability Assessments Engineer is proficient with various system analysis applications and can use them to analyze potential effects on the reliability of the grid. The Senior Reliability Assessments Engineer is fully aware of emerging issues and trends affecting the BPS in the Western Interconnection and works with industry groups to address power system reliability needs.

The Senior Reliability Assessments Engineer works with industry groups to find and use state-of-the-art technology to help ensure reliability and proposes new methods for conducting reliability assessments.

While WECC’s headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, this position is remote-eligible for candidates residing in the lower 48 states. Time spent traveling is expected to be a minimum of 15% for this role, though business needs may require additional travel on occasion.

• Propose, lead, and conduct WECC/NERC reliability assessments based on emerging issues and trends using commercially available modeling and analysis software.
• Apply deterministic, probabilistic, or other model types to support adequacy studies and other reliability assessments.
• Provide technical leadership and partnership with industry groups such as national labs; regulators; federal, state, and provincial government organizations; non-governmental organizations; and academia to identify potential reliability risks and mitigation options.
• Identify the need for, and support the development of, new software tools and processes to assess data and power system reliability.
• Deliver clear, concise presentations to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences.
• Support and provide technical leadership to WECC and NERC committees, task forces, and work groups.
• Engage stakeholders to identify and assess reliability challenges in the short-term to long-term periods.
• Provide technical expertise and support for other activities at WECC (e.g., standards development, oversight, event analysis, situation awareness).
• Work with colleagues in the ERO Enterprise to plan reliability assessments, identify the lessons learned, and apply best practices.
• Mentor other engineers and analysts and work with management to find opportunities for others to take part in industry initiatives.

• Hold a bachelor's degree in engineering, statistics, economics, or a related technical field, or have an equivalent combination of education and professional work experience. An advanced degree in engineering, statistics, economics, or business administration is preferred.
• Have at least eight years of experience in areas such as production cost modeling, resource adequacy modeling, resource planning, or capacity expansion modeling. You should also have a history of identifying emerging reliability risks and leading reliability-related analyses.
• Have extensive experience using production cost or resource adequacy tools, such as Astrape SERVM, Energy Exemplar Plexos, ABB Grid View, and GE MARS.
• Have a record of conducting assessments and developing technical reports with a strong understanding of reliability risks to the BPS.
• Possess strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work with stakeholders and…