Vice President, Strategy & BESS Market Development

About WP:

White Pine Renewables is a technology-centric renewable energy developer that is leading the transformation of the energy sector by developing large, distributed projects co-located with load. We enable businesses and communities to make smarter decisions about the way energy is created, stored, and managed by developing, financing, and owning and operating distributed solar and energy storage projects at our customers’ places of business.

We are passionate, motivated thinkers who are unified by our mission to change the way the world harnesses and uses energy. We thrive on solving big problems for our customers and are powered by our innovation and determination. In California and the Midwest, White Pine Renewables combines the spirit of a startup with the experience and access to capital on par with the largest solar development companies in the US.

We are committed to open the full spectrum of energy innovation to help our customers save money and grow through sustainable energy solutions in the following core areas: behind-the-meter solar photovoltaics, behind-the-meter energy storage, load-sited utility-scale generation, microgrids, electric vehicle charging, solar-to-hydrogen, solar-to-desalination water systems, and solar to datacenters.

We embrace innovation, as demonstrated by our success developing the largest floating solar project in operation in the US, one of the largest behind-the-meter solar projects in in California, and 100+ MW of contracted pipeline in backlog.

Job Summary:

As the Vice President – Energy Storage Market Lead, you will help develop and lead the company’s market strategy and expansion efforts for energy storage, including market analysis, project origination, and execution. This position will pursue policy and market driven structures to support storage development for behind-the-meter customers, non-wires alternatives for distribution upgrades, capacity products, ancillary services, and energy arbitrage largely in California.

This position will be responsible for executing White Pine’s contracted storage development pipeline, adding storage, to White Pine’s solar development pipeline, evaluating White Pine’s operating assets for storage retrofits, and reaching out to White Pine’s customers and landowners to explain the value proposition of hosting standalone storage via a lease, and exploring shared savings models for behind-the-meter storage.

The successful candidate will have demonstrated knowledge of CAISO electricity markets, customer-facing utility programs, energy procurement, storage policy, and capacity products. The successful candidate will have experience negotiating revenue contracts for energy storage projects, storage procurement contracts, BESS software operations contracts, BESS integration contracts, and BESS operations and maintenance contracts.

The successful candidate will also have excellent communication skills, and the ability to effectively interface with senior management, customers, external business partners, utilities, and state regulators. They will be independent, highly motivated, forward thinking, well organized, self-directed and a team player who effectively manages the demands of multiple simultaneous projects for clients both in-person and remotely.

Responsibilities:

Market Strategy

• Develop strategy to build and execute on an aggressive energy storage sales pipeline comprised primarily of community choice aggregators, commercial and industrial customers, electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, and merchant assets.
• Lead commercial offers to customers for the services BESS assets provide including but not limited to: non-wires alternatives for distribution upgrades, demand charge reduction for BTM batteries, capacity participation for SGIA assets in CAISO that avoid the cluster study process
• Evaluate White Pine’s operating fleet and contracted development pipeline for the ability to accretive add storage
• Lead execution of contracted energy storage pipeline by contracting with integrators, contracting with operations and maintenance providers, contracting with BESS software providers, and gaining access to the CAISO market for market participation
• Work with White Pine’s operations team to strategically bid uncontracted storage assets into CAISO market
• Develop corporate strategy to grow White Pine’s energy storage market share as an owner-operator through familiarity with processes, incentives, and ancillary revenue streams of wholesale market participation;
• Understand and recommend BESS manufacturers, track technology advancements with associated costs and work closely with other internal members including engineering, policy, development and construction teams;
• Effectively support policy needs in existing storage markets energy storage opportunities in capacity and ancillary services.

Business Development and Partnerships 

• Expand White Pine’s energy storage investment pipeline, including standalone and PV+S pipeline across new markets.
• Generate and manage financial models for energy storge projects
• Lead customer presentations and RFO response to CCAs, behind the meter site hosts, and IOUs and clearly communicate the value that energy storage will provide to them
• Foster relationships with battery manufacturers, integrators, and control system providers to facilitate cost-effective execution of projects.
• Apply technical knowledge of energy storage to off-taker and energy market values to structure and optimize energy storage investments.
• Collaboratively with White Pine’s energy analytics team, build models and analysis to aid internal approval process and external investment activities.
• Foster partnerships with BESS system providers and BESS integrators such that expectations set for customers can be actualized by White Pine’s project execution team

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited school required; master’s degree in relevant discipline preferred At least five years of work experience required
• A minimum of three years of experience participating in the energy industry required, preferably including experience in regulatory and electricity markets
• Ability to communicate complicated and technical points to non-technical individuals
• Strong commitment to teamwork and ability to perceive when to lead and when to build consensus
• Understanding of distributed energy market dynamics, including emerging incentive programs, local tariff structures and CAISO rules and procedures governing participation of distributed energy resources
• Experience with energy storage modeling software applications or consultants
• Strong financial experience with demonstrated understanding of project pro-formas.
• Business development experience including: identifying new customers, creating value propositions, and negotiating & executing contracts.
• Ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced, high growth environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills required
• Driven, self-starter with a passion for excellence.

EEO Statement

White Pine Renewables is dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information. We will not discriminate, in any employment decision, against any individual or group on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, or veterans/national guard/military reserve status.