Vacancy Number: 25807
Engineering - Other
Job Type: Full-time
ESB is a purpose led company striving to create a brighter future for the customers and communities we serve, leading the transition to reliable, affordable, low-carbon energy. Today, we operate one of the most progressive electricity systems in the world, with activities spanning electricity generation, transmission, distribution and supply in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and an international energy consulting business.
With almost 8,000 employees we invested €1bn in infrastructure last year, contributed over €2bn to the economies we operate in and distributed over €2m across a range of community initiatives. This requires us to bring the best of our capabilities together to deliver innovative and value-driven solutions that enable our customers to live low-carbon lives. ESB strives to foster an effective and inclusive culture where people engage, challenge and feel connected to our purpose, colleagues, customers and community.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Renewable Operations is a division within ESB Generation and Trading with responsibility for the management of the Operation and Maintenance of ESB’s renewable assets portfolio. This currently includes 26 operational wind farms with an installed capacity of 795 MW.
As part of delivery of the Brighter Future Strategy ESB it is our ambition that we will generate 70% of our electricity generation from renewable assets by 2030 with 1.7GW of offshore wind, 3.5GW of onshore wind and 900MW of solar (dependent on planning and development) and also to incorporate 500 MW of renewables enabling flexible generation assets including battery energy storage systems, peaking plants and grid support devices such as synchronous condensers.
A team of Control Centre Operators (CCOs) – located at ESB’s offices in Dublin – monitors, coordinates and controls the day-to-day operation, maintenance and technical performance of the operational UK and ROI wind farms. This is conducted primarily by telephone and by using the SCADA or IT systems provided to track these activities. To manage the transfer of turbine control, the Control Centre Operator will be proficient in ESB’s Wind Turbine Safety Rules and be passed out as an ‘Operational Controller’. It would be envisaged that staff undertaking these roles would rotate to other roles in the Renewables or Generation and Trading business after a 3 to 4 year period subject to business needs.
The new generation portfolio which includes BESS, flexible generation, synchronous compensator and solar assets with some dispatchable are autonomous with no permanent presence onsite and will be remotely monitored and dispatched from the same Control Centre. For information, whilst the assets will be controlled and dispatched from the Control Centre, there will be a high level of automation involved. The CCOs will be provided with technical support and operational training and will have to pass an internal assessment to achieve operator status.
The Control Centre is staffed on a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week basis by a team of CCOs.

The key responsibilities of this role will include but not limited to the following:

• Act as Operational Controller as defined in ESB’s Wind Turbine Safety Rules. Training will be given to the successful candidate to obtain this accreditation.
• Release Wind Turbines to service technicians and others for maintenance and other routine activities. This is carried out by telephone.
• Manage calls, respond or escalate site incidents or emergencies and initiate site response as required.
• Monitor the health of generation or electrical assets and initiate corrective actions when faults occur by contacting regional site managers or service providers.
• Investigate and identify reasons for unexpected plant outages or any other events impacting on asset availability through the use of multiple control room SCADA or IT systems.
• Monitor equipment, perform first level diagnosis of equipment problems and report abnormal conditions for corrective action using the work management system. This system is also used to log work performed and track critical tasks.
• Monitor & analyse plant performance. Check this against availability and asset yield targets. Preparation of monthly operational reports for each site.
• Control access to the sites in line with the operational protocols or local management procedure. Supervise and audit the implementation of ESB policies for contractor access and ESB lone working procedures.
• Manage / monitor inductions using the online induction system and assist with any queries or difficulties that users may have.
• Monitor integrated weather forecasts and advise of approaching lightning, high wind, or other adverse weather conditions.
• Be familiar with emergency procedures and co-ordinate emergency response in the event of an incident at a site.
• Develop and / or review control room procedure documents.
• Prepare ad-hoc analysis of asset performance to support other operational or asset management activities (e.g. liquidated damages or incentive claims, business interruption insurance claims, plant condition assessment, etc.).
• For the relevant generation technology, execute and monitor start up, shut-down and operation of assets in accordance with relevant licenses, legislation, site procedures and best practice standards.
• Manage asset shutdown schedules for activities such as wind turbine noise monitoring.
• Effective Communication with stakeholders such as EirGrid, ESB Networks or ESB Trading.
• Occasional site audits.
• Participation in selected commissioning activities.
• Carry out project work or adhoc activities as directed.
• Maintain competencies as specified to meet role requirements.
• Cover Control Centre Team Leader role as required when mandated