Smart Grid Business Development Manager

About The Role

The post holder will be responsible for leading on the development of commercial relationships with suitable flexible assets, which could be of interest to the Ecotricity Smart Grid (ESG) offering. With the VPP Growth Officer and Technical Integration Officer reporting to the role, the incumbent will be responsible for growing the client base of Ecolibrium, Ecotricity Smart Grid’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform.

The Commercial team is also responsible for liaising with the Grid and other flexibility service buyers (such as Distributed Network Operators) so as to ensure platform assets are registered for such services. Alongside the Head of Smart Grid, the role also follows regulatory developments that impact upon the ESG offering, and naturally oversees the end to end onboarding of customers, as well as the account management thereafter.

Ecotricity Smart Grid Limited

Smart Grid is the Ecotricity corporate entity which has developed the control & optimisation platform Ecolibrium which, along with the hardware/software of Ecolink, monitors and controls assets of both Ecotricity and third parties remotely.

The Smart Grid team is responsible for the platform and models which constitute the Ecotricity Virtual Power Plant, known as Ecolibrium, as well as procuring flexibility assets as clients for the VPP.

This will include ‘non-owned’ assets such as Power Purchase Agreementss and contractual relationships with 3rd parties for embedded generation response, or load flexibility. Ecotricity Smart Grid works in close conjunction with Ecotricity Limited Trading team, arbitraging price spreads / load shifting, as well as developing revenues from the ancillary services market.

There is a necessarily close relationship with the Development team in order to progress, developable, commercially viable projects through to deployment to fit in with VPP needs. Similarly there is a relationship with the business parts of sales, as we look for flexibility opportunities via the B2B ‘Made to Measure’ offering into the VPP given the right incentives and products.

Core Responsibilities

• Identifying and contracting new assets for the VPP.
• Research and assess the viability of emerging flexible technologies of interest to the VPP, including commercial modelling.
• Overseeing account management
• Overseeing the integration and onboarding of assets, making the process as efficient and seamless as possible.
• Work closely with key internal stakeholders from the planning, construction and operations teams.
• Manage relationships / communications with key external technical stakeholders, in particular National Grid ESO, DNOs and Elexon.
• Manage team members (currently Growth Officer and asset integration engineer)
• Ensure all necessary qualification work is complete for qualification for ancillary services (AS)
• Assess new Grid services.
• Ensure Ecotricity asset development is aligned with AS needs (size, location, design)
• Assist General Manager in following policy and regulatory developments that impact upon aggregation proposition, and keep up to date with current legislation, policy development and other issues relevant to the position within the company and renewable energy industry, including necessary consultation responses that affect ESG activities.
• Responsible with General Manager for marketing Ecolibrium and overseeing content on the ESG website/portal.
• This will include identifying suitable conferences/trade shows and deciding on stand presence, as well as contributing articles where possible (to trade press or website) and originating speaking opportunities for PR purposes.

Additional Responsibilities

• Contribute to strategy development.
• Ensure necessary POs are raised and track the annual budget for the department, providing a monthly summary of spend

About You

You will be an experienced business development manager used to working with senior stakeholders and the ability to sound convincing, authentic and credible. You will be naturally engaging and have the ability to absorb new ideas as well as necessarily absorb the required level of detail on the Ecolibrium product and the electricity markets that Ecotricity Smart Grid works in.

Essential Skills

• Good commercial acumen and the ability to draft contracts to support commercial arrangements.
• Ability to generate – and close commercial leads
• Marketing experience and the ability to review and improve our marketing content, including our website and customer portal.
• A pro-active ‘can-do’ attitude – ability to think ‘out of the box’ (i.e. lateral thinker) to get a deal done.
• Good communication abilities
• Good process skills
• Good presentation skills
• Excellent analytical ability
• Strong report writing ability.
• Excellent MS Excel skills

Desirable Skills

• Detailed technical understanding of renewable technologies, in particular energy storage
• Understanding of the UK energy regulatory framework

About Us

What's in it for you...

Healthcare plan, life assurance and generous pension contribution

Volunteering day

Hybrid working

Various company discounts (including shops, gym, days out and events)

Holiday of 25 days (plus bank holidays) & ability to buy/sell days

Cycle to work scheme, car pooling and onsite parking available

As a valued member of the team you will be supporting the Group Environmental policy and its associated targets to make the Green Britain Group net carbon neutral by 2025

Flexibility statement

The fast moving nature of the company's business means that from time to time you may be asked to perform duties or tasks outside of your original job description on an ad hoc basis. This allows the company to use its people in the best possible way at all times and helps the employees to make their contribution in a changing environment.

Ecotricity is Britain's greenest energy company. When we started back in 1995, we were the first company in the world to provide a new kind of electricity - the green kind.

Our mission was, and remains, to change the way energy is made and used in Britain - by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.

We don't just supply green energy, we use the money from our customers' bills to make it ourselves too - we build windmills, sun parks and green gasmills in Britain. We call this turning 'bills into mills'. Some of our biggest achievements to date include building Britain's first megawatt windmill and the country's first grid-scale sun park, as well as building our first green gasmill, generating 100% green gas from a source that we will never run out of - grass.

We don't just focus on energy though- we built the Electric Highway, Britain's leading network of electric vehicle charging points; we helped Forest Green Rovers become the greenest football club in the world; and we launched Britain's greenest mobile phone service, Ecotalk, where they use the money from their customers' bills to protect and regenerate Britain's lost rainforests.

Ecotricity is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing equality for all.