Energy Trading Specialist, Journey Level - Sacramento, United States - Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Description

To reliably procure, schedule, manage, and hedge SMUD wholesale energy requirements to serve our customer/owners. In this context wholesale energy includes; power, gas, hydro, power transmission, gas storage, financial hedging, carbon and ancillary services. This will include optimizing resources by dispatching generation plants, scheduling water flows, transacting in physical and financial energy markets and making sales of surplus resources with a focus on reducing commodity costs while maintaining system reliability. All business transactions follow SMUD risk parameters and ethical business practices.

Nature and Scope

The nature of these positions requires individuals to actively manage the SMUDs wholesale energy requirements, totaling approximately $400 million per year. This series includes several Specialty Areas including:

• Power Trading
• Power Scheduling
• Gas Trading
• Gas Scheduling
• Resource Optimization

This is the Journey Energy Trading Specialist level, which is the highest level within the Entry-Intermediate-Journey slant line progression. The successful candidate will be proficient in at least one of the Specialty Areas, serve in a lead role in one or more Specialty Areas, and oversee training of new employees in one or more Specialty Area. Positions in this class are flexibly staffed and normally filled by advancement from the Intermediate level via the slant line progression or externally. External candidates must demonstrate equivalent expertise in a minimum of one Specialty Area. The incumbent will serve as a consultant for their department in a relevant professional discipline, work independently on projects of moderate complexity, exercises independent judgment and discretion, may serve in a Lead role, and assist in planning, coordinating, prioritizing, monitoring, and evaluating the work results in assigned area, and in selecting, training, motivating, evaluating, and developing lower-level personnel.

Duties and Responsibilities

Work may include, but is not limited to, the following: NOTE: While in general all the functions and requirements listed are essential, individual positions and/or locations may not require all duties be performed.

• Proficiency for purposes of this Energy Trading Specialist Class Series is the demonstrated ability to perform the various functions in any one Specialty Area, independently with minimal oversight. For example, an employee that was independently able to perform each of the functions enumerated for Power Trading below with minimal oversight, would have achieved Proficiency in the Power Trading Specialty Area.

Power Trading - Real Time or Day Ahead

• Conducts all weather and load forecasting and portfolio optimization processes.
• Forecast customer energy requirements considering historical demands, applicable load shapes, and weather projections.
• Performs weather Forecast analysis.
• Creates load and generation schedules for the Power System Operator PSO.
• Runs hourly Portfolio Optimization as market, weather or load conditions deem necessary.
• Communicates with the Power System Operator PSO to review planned generation schedules.
• Submits resource plans with balanced base schedules at hourly and sub-hourly intervals to CAISO.
• Ensures that resources, load, and interchange are balanced for EIM each hour.
• Manages hydro reservoir levels and in-flows to ensure economic dispatch of UARP and minimize potential for spill.
• Continually evaluate; market conditions, generating plant limitations hydroelectric and thermal, maintenance, outages, transmission ratings and curtailments, and existing contract provisions.
• Determine resource costs and availability considering existing market conditions, generating plant limitations both hydroelectric and thermal, maintenance, outages, transmission ratings and curtailments, and existing contract provisions.
• Manage resources to meet NERC/WECC Reliability criteria during all operating conditions.
• Utilize various market applications to submit capacity, energy, transmission, and ancillary service bids.
• Negotiate purchases and sales of energy, capacity, ancillary services, and the purchase of transmission to meet load and SMUD objectives.
• Purchases monthly and hourly transmission.
• Works with Scheduling if any scheduling conflicts arise.
• Communicates with Management and the Real Time Traders for review to provide a summary of the next day position, strategy for generation and available options
• Transacts within the SMUD risk parameters and ethical business practices.
• Develop and maintain a good working knowledge of integrated power system operations and WECC, NERC, FERC and CAISO policies, procedures, protocols, and business practices.
• Train co-workers on new trading policies and protocols as they develop.
• Conduct economic analysis of current resource options and market opportunities.
• Negotiate financial contracts within the confines of the SMUD Trading Guidelines and management directive.

Duties and Responsibilities Cont.

• Determine optimal short-term use of existing power purchase contracts based on market information.
• Work with Resource Optimizer to develop shadow price for energy limited resources.
• Develop a trading strategy for energy, capacity, transmission, and/or ancillary services.
• Evaluate and optimize the resource preschedule, in real-time, to generation dispatch, capacity needs, energy, transmission and ancillary services purchases and sales.
• Perform if-then analysis to develop optimized strategy for the dispatch of generation resources, and to optimize purchases and sales of capacity, energy, transmission, and ancillary services.
• Implement SMUD Trading Guidelines and management directives.
• Develop and maintain harmonious operations with electric trading partners and other SMUD stakeholders through the use of effective communication practices.

Power Scheduling - Real Time or Day Ahead

• Develop and submit schedules based on contract requirements and prudent economics to ensure the timely flow of SMUD power resources.
• Utilize various market applications, to submit capacity, energy, transmission, and ancillary service schedules.
• Prepare and submit all reports required as a Scheduling Coordinator including intertie, CAISO and SMUD Control Area requirements, and checkouts.
• Prepare and maintain real-time and preschedule documentation and reports for after-the-fact analysis.
• Purchases monthly, daily, and hourly transmission.
• Develop and maintain harmonious operations with interconnected utilities and wholesale entities using effective communication practices.
• Develop and maintain harmonious operations with electric trading partners and other SMUD stakeholders using effective communication practices.
• Train co-workers on new trading policies and protocols as they develop.
• Schedule on weekends and holidays on a rotational basis.
• Investigate/research day ahead scheduling discrepancies and ensure implementation prior to start of scheduling hour.
• Adjust schedules real time during emergency transmission derates or curtailments.
• Implement SMUD Trading Guidelines and management directives.
• Schedules all California Oregon Border COB, CAISO, and bilateral trades.
• Tags transactions in OATI and updates tags, as necessary.
• Responsible for promptly approving the import and export updates to the Energy Transfer System Resource ETSR so Net Scheduled Interchange NSI checkouts may be performed by PSO for the EIM market.
• Notifies Settlements department of scheduling changes due to curtailments.
• Ensure bids, base schedules, market instruments, and transmission are submitted and scheduled in a timely manner for all energy markets.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Gas Trading

• Negotiate the purchase or sale of gas commodity or pipeline capacity or storage capacity in conformance with the Trading Guidelines, delegations of authority and management directives.
• Initiates the confirmations process if the trade meets confirmations requirements.
• Maintain gas market expertise and continually survey the gas market.
• Develop and maintain harmonious operations with gas trading partners, gas pipeline personnel and other SMUD stakeholders using effective communication practices.
• Manage the gas resource portfolio to balance the supply with the load, such that the imbalance stays within contract parameters.
• Plan and implement gas-trading tactics.
• Train co-workers on new trading policies and protocols as they develop.
• Implement SMUD Trading Guidelines and management directives.

Duties and Responsibilities Cont.

• Completes due diligence before completing any transaction to determine whether the transaction being made is appropriate and beneficial to SMUD.
• Conducts arbitrage trades related to storage to offset storage costs.
• Matches physical indexed gas flows to the hedges and fixed price deals set by Commodity Risk Management (CRM).
• Reviews the hedging numbers provided by management, Imbalance Worksheet, and Trade Tool as described in process to determine the appropriate prompt month transactions that need to be made.
• Ensures there is appropriate pipeline capacity before scheduling can occur.
• Conducts carbon purchases and sales on behalf of SMUD through an auction process or secondary market.
• Utilizes the Carbon Tracking Tool to determine how to best optimize the California Carbon Allowances (CCA) portfolio and determine how to proceed with buying, selling, and retiring allowances.
• Transacts within the SMUD's risk parameters and ethical business practices.
• Assists in the development, implementation and management of department goals, objectives, policies and priorities in partnership with the department Manager.
• Selects, trains, motivates, evaluates and develops subordinate personnel and ensures that department strategic objectives and priorities are achieved and coordinated with other departments.
• Supports the strategic objectives of SMUD within the workgroup and complies with applicable organization, local, state and federal laws, rules and regulatory requirements.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Gas Scheduling
• Develop and submit gas schedules on all relevant pipelines; Nova, Foothills, GTN, PG&E, Kern River.
• Develop and submit gas schedules for relevant gas storage projects (PG&E's Gas Storage System, Wild Goose, Lodi, Gill Ranch).
• Schedule gas supplies according to rigid timelines four times per day.
• Schedule gas on weekends and holidays on a rotational basis.
• Maintain gas-scheduling infrastructure tools (software, hardware, etc.)
• Interface with gas pipelines and suppliers and other District stakeholders to avoid problems before they happen.
• Quickly and decisively resolve gas issues such as supplier nonperformance.
• Train coworkers.
• Implement SMUD Trading Guidelines and management directives.
• Schedules pipeline flow by nominating appropriate pipelines and amounts to the EBB.
• Works with counterparties if a netting opportunity exists.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

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