PERFORMANCE ENGINEER

Company: Atlantica
Location: Gila Bend
Posted on: January 27, 2023

Job Description:

Description: This position provides technical support to the operations, maintenance and planning departments by identifying and resolving areas of concern relating to plant performance, operation and the reliability and efficiency of the solar generating facility. These tasks are accomplished through the interpretation of plant performance data from different systems and the development and implementation of plans and procedures needed to optimize and enhance plant production and reliability. The position will also support normal maintenance and plant retrofit/outage activities including preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance of plant equipment and cost benefit analysis. In addition, the performance engineer is responsible for generating production projections and actual results of the solar generating facility based upon weather forecasts and equipment availability. These projections are distributed to management for planning and externally to the power utility and owner. The position will maintain effective ongoing relationships with the plant management team including the engineering manager, operations manager, maintenance manager, planner, plant manager and corporate operations departments. This position is based at the plant site. The job may require working non-standard hours. Some travel to other plant sites, offices, or vendor locations may be required for training or other purposes. Requirements: Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Plant performance assessment - conduct systematic performance analysis and reporting on a daily basis on the results and deviations detected. Identify opportunities for performance improvement by analyzing plant data from different systems (power cycle, solar field and thermal energy storage), making mass & heat balances of the process, modeling, simulating and other quantification methods.
• Generate daily production forecasts based on weather forecasts to be internally and externally distributed.
• Develop tools and models to be used for the different performance assessment activities such as performance optimization and production projections.
• Collaborating with the power utility to optimize the use of the thermal energy storage system. Develop and optimize new generation profiles that adapt better to the grid energy demand curve without penalizing the power plant efficiency in excess. Other Duties and Responsibilities:
  • Assist operation department in continually monitoring overall plant equipment performance to recommend best operating practices and initiate changes to improve plant performance to ensure that key energy consumption and production targets are met.
  • Assist control department in defining, developing and fine tuning control logic to optimize the overall performance of the plant.
  • Generate Management of Change (MOC) documents to address plant performance issues as required, complete engineering aspects of MOC documentation.
  • Prepare and collect all the information and the required technical documentation for the O&M activities, ensuring it successful control and / or management. Prerequisites:
    • Bachelor's degree in engineering with emphasis in energy systems, heat transfer, thermodynamics or similar. Master's preferred.
    • 0-3 years of experience desired.
    • Knowledge of steam power cycles, ASME process piping, pump design and application.
    • Knowledge of systems control is desired, PID, PLC and DCS, but not absolutely needed.
    • Experience in power plant operation and maintenance. Skills and Abilities:
      • Proficient with Excel and MS Office.
      • Ability to carry out detailed instructions with limited supervision - self-motivated.
      • Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities. Use of judgment and creativity to solve problems efficiently.
      • Effective listening
      • Strong written and oral communication skills.
      • Tolerant and flexible to different situations.
      • Ability to work and interact with departments throughout the organization.
      • Highly effective in team-focused environments.
      • Have a strong desire to make a measurable positive impact to plant performance.
      • Have a strong desire to obtain hands on experience in a plant operating environment.
      • Bilingual in English and Spanish a plus. PI201251620

Keywords: Atlantica, Phoenix , PERFORMANCE ENGINEER, Engineering , Gila Bend, Arizona