Associate Performance Analyst

About Lightsource bp

Lightsource bp is a global leader in the development and management of solar energy projects. We are a 50:50 joint venture with bp with a mission to help drive the world’s transition to low carbon energy.

With solar set to increase tenfold in the next 20 years, we are well-positioned to capitalize on this growth. By joining the Lightsource bp team, you will ‘be the change’ on the world’s energy transition to a more sustainable future.

We pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial spirit as we continue to push the boundaries of an ever-changing energy landscape. By choosing a career with us, you can expect a challenging and fulfilling role surrounded by people who are passionate and have brilliant ideas about sustainable technology, innovation and making the world a better place.

Global Performance & Monitoring Team

Since its founding in 2010, Lightsource bp has grown rapidly to become a global market leader in the development, acquisition, and long-term management & operation of solar energy projects. In addition to being a multi-GW developer of utility-scale plants, Lightsource bp has invested heavily in its Asset Services division, that is, the internal capabilities required to manage, operate, and optimise the return of a solar site over its lifespan. Long one of the largest Owners and Operators of solar in the UK, LSbp’s Asset Services business is currently scaling up rapidly. Today we manage hundreds of MW of assets in each of the United States, Spain, and Australia, in addition to our UK home market, with more new markets soon to follow.

Global Performance & Monitoring

The LSbp Global Performance & Monitoring team sits within the Asset Services business, acting as the nerve centre through which all asset data flows on a daily basis. The insights generated by the team are disseminated across Lightsource, providing the foundation for data-based decision-making. From a simple decision to dispatch an engineer to site to investigate a fault to deciding to proceed with a multi-million-pound site retrofit, the process starts with the Global Performance & Monitoring team. We measure our success by the performance of our international fleet of assets, as well as by the service we provide to our O&M and Asset Management colleagues, in the form of data feeds, reporting, insight generation, and recommendations.

The team is seeking to expand, adding an Associate Performance Analyst who will broaden the team’s ability to manage our team’s portfolio of assets under management, currently 5.0 GW of solar and battery storage across six countries. The successful candidate will join an existing team of 8 in Madrid, as well as an additional 11 UK-based colleagues.

Role summary

The role will be focused on asset performance analysis and the calculation and reporting of key performance indicators (availability, performance ratios, events monitoring, etc.). The main parts of the role will involve daily monitoring of the health of the power plants, data quality assurance, analysis of energy and irradiance metering, and other performance analysis in Excel, and/or other data analysis tools. The role also includes reporting business intelligence, and data visualisation responsibilities. The successful candidate will help create reports to be used internally for decision-making, as well as those delivered externally to asset owners, financial lenders, and tax equity partners. Advanced analytical skills are required for success in this role.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Regular health monitoring of the plants through our Monitoring System, analysing system-generated alarms with the aim to identify technical issues and potential underperformance
• Calculation of KPIs and other performance metrics for the sites for which you are responsible (e.g., Availability, Performance Ratio, etc.)
• Data analysis to investigate the root cause and quantify the impact on performance of identified issues
• Engagement with Asset Managers and the rest of the Global Performance & Monitoring Team to track known issues through to resolution
• Generation of regular reports on the performance of the sites which detail performance via the main KPIs and explain underperformance via known technical issues / underperformance events
• Support continuous improvement efforts via the development of new tools for streamlining our data analysis and reporting automation (i.e., scripts to automate manual calculations, improve data manipulation or automate reporting / dashboards)
• Support on the implementation and testing of the company’s new, industry-leading Data Lake and System of Insight (KPI Management, Reporting and Analytics tool).

Work Skills

• Must be fluent in spoken and written English
• Must be an advanced user of Microsoft Excel (incl. VBA)
• Must be able to work with large datasets and be comfortable querying datasets
• Python, R, SQL and/or other programming skills are strongly desired
• Automated data visualisation & communication experience (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) will be considered an asset

General Skills/Attributes

• Possesses an analytical mind, keen to identify and solve problems
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills – able to go beyond just presenting data to pull out key insights
• Able to manage interaction with internal and external stakeholders
• Relentless attention to detail and drive to produce quality work
• Organisation and work ethic to deliver against critical deadlines
• Possesses a mindset of continuous improvement, always looking for opportunities to improve, both as an individual and a team
• Is a team player but also able to work independently
• Passionate about renewables and the energy transition

Knowledge

Direct knowledge of solar energy generation is not absolutely necessary; however, a candidate will be well-served by a basic understanding of:

• Basic principles of electricity generation
• Key photovoltaic (PV) plant components and methods of operation
• PV plant performance parameters such as PR, availability, etc.
• Basic data flows underlying SCADA and monitoring systems

Experience Required

• Must have demonstrable experience of data analysis / generating and communicating insights from quantitative information
• Ideal candidate would have previous exposure to utility-scale renewable plants
• Ideal candidate would have prior experience working with monitoring and SCADA systems

Education and Qualifications

Degree in Renewable Energy, Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, or Computer Science; or, Foundation Degree (eg, FdA, FdSc), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) related with Renewable Energy or/and data analysis.

Why you’ll want to work for us

Our company is a place where you can be yourself and grow; a place where your ideas and opinions matter.

Be you

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive community, where every individual is valued and treated with respect.

Be responsible

Our culture is driven by our core values. From operating safely to ensuring our Renewable Energy projects are responsible and promote biodiversity.

Be recognized

Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a variety of benefits including annual bonus, retention bank, health insurance, pension and other local benefits.

Be inspired

Beyond your day-to-day working life at Lightsource bp, there’s a variety of initiatives that will contribute to your own personal development. Initiatives to get involved with including our charitable causes, supporting our solar honey project or our sustainability initiatives.

Our Core Values

Lightsource bp truly cares about creating a sustainable future through safe, responsible and meaningful low carbon energy projects. Our core values of Safety, Integrity, Respect, Sustainability and Drive are the guiding principles for everything we do.

https://www.lightsourcebp.com/careers/