Engineer – Grid

Engineer – Grid & Power Systems 

Pacific Partnerships is a member of the CIMIC Group, Australia’s largest diversified infrastructure group (revenue $15bn, work in hand $31bn and liquidity $4bn). Pacific leads the development of, invests in and manages infrastructure concession and renewable energy assets, leveraging the group’s financial strength and diverse capabilities. The team’s project development, technical, commercial and finance expertise transform into seamless, value-for-money solutions for clients.

Pacific is building on its core capability and market strength in the development of infrastructure projects to build a diversified portfolio of energy and utilities assets within the National Electricity Market (NEM).  Pacific’s focus is on delivering value to the CIMIC Group through development, delivery and operations of these assets. 

Join the team 

Pacific is seeking an experienced Engineer – Grid & Power Systems to join our technical team and support the growing energy technical team. This role will be important to enable Pacific to successfully develop and deliver projects within its portfolio of quality generation and storage assets.

The key focus of the Engineer – Grid & Power Systems will be to coordinate and assist in delivering all technical aspects required for development and successful delivery of Pacific’s generation assets. This will include working within grid workstreams at all stages of the project lifecycle, including site feasibility, connection enquiry, application, R1 registration, construction, energisation, R2 commissioning, and operation. This opportunity will draw on your experience working either within a Grid Consultant, OEM, NSP or AEMO connecting and operating assets within the NEM.

This role will report to the Head of Grid and work closely with commercial and finance workstreams, the D&C / EPC and O&M contractors, and the development team. 

Located in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne the role will cover: 

• Working within the grid connection team, supporting the development and delivery of renewable energy projects in relation to power systems and grid connection across all phases of the project.
• Preliminary analysis of transmission network data to assess connection feasibility and technical assessments to make recommendations on connection matters for early-stage developments.
• Work on developing concept designs, plant sizing, and OEM selection processes at early phase of development.
• Review, manage and conduct due-diligence on complex grid connection deliverables produced by internal grid consultant at all phases
• Develop and produce models and/or grid connection and power system deliverables with the required software tools being internally available (when provided).
• Coordinate, and negotiate technical standards with AEMO and TNSP for successful connections and delivery.
• Develop in-house due-diligence methods, checklists and templates to review the grid connection deliverables including PSCAD/PSSE/Powerfactory models submitted by external parties. 
• Identify appropriate and innovative technical controls for solving complex generating system requirements.
• Provide technical guidance for design inputs concerning grid connection, substation, and collector network aspects of projects.
• Assist the operations team in managing plant changeovers and resolving technical non-conformances and other issues.
• Stay updated with the latest NER regulations and relevant industry standards.
• Provide technical support throughout the project lifecycle, from feasibility studies to commissioning leading to O&M.
• Develop scope-of-work/RFP documents and participate in the review and selection of Generator Performance Standard (GPS) and Connection Application (CA) consultants.

Our requirements for this role are:

• Post-graduate qualifications (MSc / PhD) in Electrical Engineering / Power System Engineering 
• Registration with Engineers Australia and BPEQ (e.g., CPEng, NER, RPEQ, or eligibility for registration).
• 3-5 years hands on working experience in preparation of grid connections / power systems deliverables.
• Extensive experience in connection application packages, generator registration, and negotiation of generator performance standards of assets connected in the NEM.
• Generator and power systems modelling/tuning experience – solar/wind farm and BESS modelling highly valued with PSSE and/or PSCAD and/or Power Factory.
• Proficiency using PSS/E, PSCAD, PowerFactory simulation tools and Python scripting.
• Experience in in-house harmonics assessment and high-level filter design (highly regarded).
• Familiarity with a wide range of technologies and an understanding of emerging trends in technology (solar, wind farm, BESS or hybrid plant will be highly valued).
• Comprehensive knowledge of the electricity industry, NER, NEM processes, AEMC regulations, AER regulations, generator behaviour, and network constraints.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to projects with an outcome-focused & problem-solving approach.
• Understanding of technical issues in large-scale projects and generation developers’ commercial aspects.

What we offer

At Pacific Partnerships we are committed to employing individuals who are aligned with our mission and principles (integrity, accountability, innovation, delivery and safety) and meet the requirements of the role. We recognise the importance of our people and are committed to providing a workplace where everyone can thrive and be at their best every day. 

We are committed to workplace diversity and social inclusion, recognising that diverse perspectives creates strength for the business, it makes us better learners, thinkers and collaborators. We encourage applications from women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island People, members of the LGBTIQ+ community, people with disability and from culturally diverse backgrounds.

At CIMIC Group we offer rewarding careers for our people, that’s one of the benefits of having 7 brands and a global operating footprint.