Commercial Realtime Operations Associate

Calpine Corporation is America's largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources with operations in competitive power markets. Its fleet of 77 power plants in operation represents over 27,000 megawatts of generation capacity. Through wholesale power operations and its retail businesses, Calpine serves customers in 22 states and Canada. Its clean, efficient, modern and flexible fleet uses advanced technologies to generate power in a low-carbon and environmentally responsible manner.

The company was established on the premise that a strong commitment to the environment is inextricably linked to excellence in power generation and corporate responsibility. Since its founding in 1984, Calpine has led the power industry in its unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship. In addition, its renewable geothermal plants use steam generated deep below the earth's surface to produce clean, renewable electricity.

Job Summary (includes but is not limited to the following, other duties may be assigned)

This role is a 24-month real-time operations rotation program. Ascension to higher or equivalent permanent role is dependent on performance, proficiency on processes and market fundamentals, and other minimum requirements. Ascension to a higher or equivalent permanent role can happen in less than 2 years but no earlier than 1 year into this role (certain exceptions may apply).

Expected to rotate regional responsibilities within 24 months, up to 8 months for each region (ERCOT, WEST, EAST). This analyst will be trained and is expected to retain such knowledge on market and power generation fundamentals, as well as various daily commercial operations, necessary to assume higher or equivalent permanent responsibilities/role, including but not limited to Real Time Power Operator role.

Job Responsibilities

Within the 24-month program, the analyst is expected to make material contributions in the respective region for the corresponding tasks assigned and trained on for any given period of time, which may include the following:

• Perform power scheduling (ISO or traditional) and coordinates NERC-Tags with appropriate counterparties;
• Schedules, controls and dispatches output for Calpine's generating units including conducting commercial transactions and monitoring scheduling activities on one desk. Optimizes economics of owned assets in the real-time and day-ahead environments, which may include conducting real-time (hourly, daily) purchase and sales transactions to increase margin and lower power costs, analyzing and reacting to current market and competitive conditions, monitoring scheduled transactions, re-supplying and rescheduling power in the event of curtailments, and executing opportunistic business opportunities that create value for Calpine, without compromising company guidelines for risk management;
• Determines generation requirements to meet Calpine's obligations through monitoring of real-time status information pertaining to available generation, and identifies excess generation available for the spot market. Communicates unit start up/shut down to plants for the trading organization. Determines what actions to take to ensure reliable operation of the power grid. Communicates with the control area operator/ISO to maintain stability including coordination of communication and data exchange (real-time, day-ahead, historical) among Calpine's generating plants and customers (e.g. independent system operators, power pools and transmission operations);
• Notify appropriate internal and external customers of outages and limitations in a timely manner;
• Focus on optimizing economics of owned assets in the real-time and day-ahead environments, which may include conducting real-time (hourly, daily) purchase and sales transactions to increase margin and lower power costs, analyzing and reacting to current market and competitive conditions, monitoring scheduled transactions, re-supplying and rescheduling power in the event of curtailments, and executing opportunistic business opportunities that create value for Calpine, without compromising company guidelines for risk management. Accurately enters all trading activities in designated databases/tools;
• Reviews, analyzes , and identifies relevant ISO, RTO, NERC rules, regulations, protocols affecting Commercial Operations;
• Recommend, develop, implement, and endorse standard processes, including preparing and coordinating all related documentation, assessing and defining project requirements, delivery platform, testing, troubleshooting, and monitoring continued compliance on processes, procedures, rules and protocols;
• Maintain, sustain, process implement, and identify opportunities for continuous improvement and solutions to on-going concerns of Commercial Operations;
• Champion development and improvement of commercial operations bid tools or enterprise-wide bid modelling;
• Develop standard reporting for timely Day-Ahead & Real-Time operations; Perform Ad-hoc responsibilities for Commercial Operations, as necessary.

Job Requirements

• A Bachelor degree in quantitative fields such as mathematics, computational science, engineering, physics, economics, finance, and accounting, or equivalent experience is required.
• Entry-level; typically less than 3 years' experience.

Additional Calpine Information:

• Equal Opportunity Employer of Minorities, Females, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities.
• Calpine is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment and need special assistance or an accommodation to use our website or to apply for a position, please send an e-mail with your request to hrrecruitment@calpine.com. Determination on requests for reasonable accommodation are made on case-by-case basis.

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