Performance Analyst

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 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 rapidly scaling alongside our development business, now with assets under management in the United States, Spain, and Australia.

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 euro 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 a Performance Analyst who will broaden the team’s ability to manage our team’s portfolio of assets under management, expected to exceed 2.4 GW by year-end. The successful candidate will be based in Bath, joining an existing team of eight UK-based colleagues, as well as an additional five Spain-based colleagues.

Role summary

The role will be focused on asset performance analysis, calculation of KPIs (availability, performance ratios, etc.) and reporting both to be used internally and those delivered to asset owners, financial lenders, and tax equity partners. High rigour in reporting and analytical mindset are required for success in this role.

The role will also imply a very close and regular relationship with the UK O&M team and occasionally the Asset Management team in order to communicate to them the underperformance issues found on sites through data analysis, and to track and ensure its resolution on timely manner. The successful candidate will play a role in the mentorship and development of less experienced team members

Duties and Responsibilities

Calculation of several KPIs and other metrics requested for the solar sites.

Authoring of regular reports on the performance of the sites, including the main KPIs and all the relevant technical issues and underperformance events that have occurred / are ongoing.

Day-to-day monitoring of site performance via SCADA monitoring system

Day-to-day liaising with O&M Planning team and engineers on site

Responding to alerts and alarms, triaging the issues, and raising tickets to be addressed by the Field teams

Root cause analysis of incidents and issues identified on plants

Engagement with rest of the Global Performance & Monitoring Team in order to track and follow up on the issues identified until its resolution.

Participation in cross-functional operational huddles, bringing performance data to influence decision-making

Calculation of contractual availability, PR and completion of Grid Compliance analyses for the requested portfolios and/or sites.

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).

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)

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

Must have experience with solar monitoring platforms (e.g., InAccess, GPM, etc.)

Python, R, SQL and/or other programming skills are an asset

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

Basic principles of electricity generation

Key photovoltaic (PV) plant components and methods of operation

Understanding of how to approach performance analysis of PV plants and calculation of parameters such as PR, Availability, etc.

Experience with performance reporting for solar assets

Basic data flows underlying SCADA and monitoring systems

Experience Required

Experience working in the solar or renewables industry, preferably in a performance analysis and reporting capacity within Asset Management or O&M

Demonstrable experience of improving the performance of solar plants through data

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.