Senior HV Engineer

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Job Description

Could you be the technical expert who shapes how our solar and battery storage projects connect to the grid, guiding critical engineering decisions from early feasibility through to energisation?

We're looking for a Senior HV Engineer to join our Elgin's Engineering team as the in-house technical authority for grid connection and HV engineering across our utility-scale solar PV and co-located BESS projects in the UK and Ireland, with the potential to support Elgin's projects in Italy. The role follows the project lifecycle: grid feasibility and connection optioneering, development-stage engineering to support consents, land and grid applications, technical specification for procurement, and technical assurance of the contractors' design, construction and energisation. Elgin does not carry out detailed design in-house; detailed design and construction are delivered by ICP, iDNO and EPC contractors against Elgin's Employer's Requirements.

The focus of the role is engineering and de-risking from the earliest stage of a project: bringing the grid engineering into development so that the connection method, cable route and substation requirements are settled through the feasibility work, planning applications, land agreements and grid applications rather than discovered later; making sure each connection is technically deliverable and that the contestable / non-contestable scope split is right before it is fixed in budgets and contracts; and assuring that the designs produced by ICPs, iDNOs and consultants meet Elgin's Employer's Requirements and the network operator's standards. Commercial and programme management of the DNO / TSO relationship sits outside of this role; this role provides the engineering judgement behind it.

Elgin does not design or build its projects itself: it sets the technical requirements and its contractors deliver against them. The value of this role is in setting those requirements well and in challenging what consultants and contractors deliver. You will be the technical escalation and decision on HV and grid matters and the primary technical contact for Elgin's development-stage consultants and ICPs.

What you will do:

Development stage

• Lead the technical side of connection method and grid route optioneering for Development: scope and direct the feasibility studies, judge overhead line, underground cable and hybrid options on constructability, consentability, land take and cost, and recommend the option to take forward.
• Get the grid engineering into the development case early, so that it is reflected in consents and land rather than discovered at procurement: define the substation footprint, cable route corridor and crossing strategy for planning applications and consents, provide the technical input to land, wayleave and easement discussions, and prepare the technical inputs to grid connection and modification applications (DNO / NESO in GB, ESB Networks / EirGrid in Ireland).
• Produce concept-level single line diagrams, substation layouts and route corridors with the CAD team, to the level needed for feasibility, planning and tender purposes only; detailed design sits with the ICP, iDNO and EPC contractors. Discharge Elgin's CDM 2015 designer duties for the concept designs it produces.
• Act as primary technical contact for Elgin's development-stage consultants on cable routes, HV design and power system studies: define technical scopes, review deliverables and challenge conclusions before they enter project decisions. This is development-stage consultancy; detailed design is delivered by the EPC and ICP contractors.
• Specify and review the cable modelling, ampacity and losses studies (MV through 132 kV, and 220 kV in Ireland) carried out by consultants and contractors, and make sure the results feed the design basis, CAPEX and energy yield assumptions.
• Set and challenge the technical grid CAPEX assumptions and the engineering basis of the connection programme as they enter the investment case, and produce the technical reports, planning inputs and position papers that stand up to Investment Committee and lender scrutiny.

Grid connection

• Technically interpret connection offers, Connection Agreements and technical schedules, on Elgin's own projects and in acquisition due diligence: what they commit Elgin to, where the contestable / non-contestable boundary sits, and the omissions, abnormal costs and onerous conditions behind them.
• Review and challenge network study outputs (fault level, harmonics, reactive capability, protection) and turn them into Employer's Requirements and contestable / non-contestable scope decisions for the ICP and EPC turnkey contracts.
• Own the contestable / non-contestable / Contractor interface on each project: define …