Commercial Lead

Lead commercial management of renewables energy assets
- Join a growing organisation, part of the global Berkshire Hathaway Energy group
- Be part of the company vision to secure a sustainable energy future

CalEnergy Resources (Australia) Limited, a subsidiary of the Northern Powergrid Group of Companies and part of the Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) group, is recruiting for a full-time permanent Commercial Lead - Renewables to support delivery of outstanding operational and financial management of invested assets. This role will have a focus on the Australian renewable energy sector and will support the future energy growth ambitions of the company.

**About CalEnergy Resources**
With roots in renewable energy, BHE’s portfolio consists of locally managed businesses that share a vision for a secure and sustainable energy future. These businesses deliver affordable, safe and reliable service each day to millions of customers around the world and consistently rank high among energy companies in customer satisfaction

CalEnergy has been operational in Australia since the early 2000s. Whilst their Australian history has sat within natural gas primarily, the future pathway is into renewables. Technology-agnostic, they have already invested and acquired the Gunnedah and Suntop Solar Farms totalling 345 MWp in New South Wales. CalEnergy locally manages different stages of project and asset maturity as part of the BHE strategy to invest in growth opportunities and acquire projects or assets that are additive to our business.

CalEnergy has established a framework to build out a growing renewable energy generation and storage pipeline in Australia.

**Purpose**
This position is a key member of the business development directorate with four primary accountabilities:

- Operational Excellence -Support a growing and diverse portfolio of assets to provide reliable and resilient energy to our customers. Maintain sound commercial relationships with key external stakeholders. Responsible for management of operation critical commercial agreements and contracts
- Financial strength - Optimise financial returns on Company’s existing renewable energy generation investments, including management of contracted offtake, merchant generation and LGCs. Responsible for management of and optimising existing commercial agreements and contracts (Asset Management, O&M, Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), merchant generation, offtake, and bidding strategies).
- Safety and security - Strive for Target Zero so that each employee or contractor returns home safely each and every day, without incident. Managing the sensitive information of our customers and assets against cyber and physical security threats is a key priority
- Business Development - Provide functional commercial leadership in the pursuit, evaluation, and capture of new renewable energy investments in Australia. Negotiate transaction critical commercial agreements and contracts.

**Responsibilities**
- Assess the technical and commercial viability of projects and identify acquisition opportunities
- Coordinate the development of project reports, financial models, and investment cases
- Provide consultative support to acquisition and divestment planning initiatives, namely through financial and management information analyses, reports, and recommendations. Support negotiations where required.
- Provide analytical and commercial advice for financial transactions and negotiations with lenders and insightful guidance on the economic evaluation of projects. Support negotiations as required.
- Locally manage financing transactions such as project finance structures, corporate debt as well as on the associated structuring of commercial arrangements.
- Management of and reporting on debt covenants including monitoring of compliance
- Develop competitive executable contracts, power purchase agreements (PPAs)
- Critically review and assess vendor, developer or owner project, contracts, and economic inputs
- Carry out commercial due diligence for potential greenfield and operating renewable asset acquisitions including the identification of opportunity risks (mitigations) and opportunities (enablers). Review contractual and commercial agreement risks and participate in overall opportunity valuation activities.
- Functional responsibility for developing inhouse capability with respect to the capture and management of renewable energy projects, technologies, and markets, including the timely and appropriate identification and use of internal and external third-party resources to support business priorities when required.
- Critical review and interrogation of vendor or proponent commercial contracts and agreements. Lead commercial assessments in support of opportunity screening and evaluation. A first-hand understanding of renewable energy generation costs, market benchmarks and value drivers across technologies.
- Support engagement with external stakeholders such as regulatory, local