Solar O&M Engineer III

About the role

The Solar O&M Engineer III(P2) position at LRE is responsible for providing technical guidance and support for Leeward Solar self-perform O&M plants. Key responsibilities include performance monitoring, remote troubleshooting, preventive, corrective, and breakdown maintenance, new plant onboarding, and implementing LRE’s integrity management program.

Responsibilities

• Performance monitoring of 100+ MW solar plants with central inverters and trackers
• Remote troubleshooting and directing preventive, corrective and breakdown maintenance
• Travel to site for field support, assist with repairing faults and/or direct other technicians
• New plant onboarding including reviewing technical design, OEM specs and preparing internal documentation
• Participate in golden row walkdown, new site inspections and issue reports
• Implement LRE integrity management program for plant preventive maintenance
• Perform root cause analysis, and issue RCA reports
• Remote and on-site fault/alarm monitoring, and update fault condition and trouble resolution database
• Project manage and deliver cost saving and production improvement projects
• Develop processes to manage solar plant productivity including reliability, condition monitoring, and performance improvement
• Investigate and perform data analysis from SCADA, Ignition and Bazefield
• Develop/update procedures, work orders, SOP’s and work instructions and implement them in Maximo
• Deliver inputs for annual operating budgets, operational cost models and business cases for plant improvements
• Manage projects and contractors related to solar engineering system improvements
• Review maintenance findings from solar projects and make recommendations for improvements or upgrades
• Document and implement plant configuration changes
• Interface with OEM technical teams
• Train and mentor on-site technicians

Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to resolve technical problems, document work instructions, communicate and manage resources effectively, provide technical support, and provide on-call support
• Must have a 4-Year Bachelors Engineering Degree
• 10 or more years of relevant technical experience; hands-on experience with solar central inverters required
• Fundamental understanding of electrical power systems design and operation
• Experience with maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of electrical power systems, especially central inverters such as Sungrow 3600/4400, TMEIC Ninja, SMA SC2475/SC3950/CP800
• Experience with drone IR scanning of solar plants for fault location. FAA drone pilot license desirable
• Experience with facilities database/ERP, work order system such as IBM Maximo
• Experience with solar panel IV curve tracing using Fluke/Solmetric PVA1500 or equivalent
• Experience with design, configuration and operation of Solar tracking systems such as Nextracker
• Experience with operation and maintenance of Medium Voltage transformers
• Ability to read and understand electrical drawings, schematics, wiring diagrams and other common specifications in the electrical power industry
• Excellent clarity and proficiency in verbal and written communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to be self-motivated, manage technical projects and priorities in a complex and dynamic environment

Qualifications

• Current authorization to work for any employer in the United States on a full-time basis without the need for an employment visa now or in the future
• Willingness and ability to travel at least 25%
• Demonstrated ability to operate a motor vehicle and possess a valid driver's license
• Demonstrated ability to be self-motivated, manage technical projects and priorities in a complex and dynamic environment