Design Engineer - Commercial and Industrial and Utility Scale Solar PV

Solar Careers UK; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is on a mission to enhance the solar energy landscape by recruiting skilled professionals for the booming solar and battery storage sector. This role as a Design Engineer involves the design and review of Solar PV plants, ensuring compliance with standards while integrating Electrical Energy Storage Systems. You will work closely with various stakeholders to develop innovative solutions for solar projects, contributing to the UK's ambitious renewable energy goals. Join a dynamic team dedicated to making a positive impact in the renewable energy field and help shape the future of sustainable energy solutions.

Qualifications

• Experience in Solar PV system design at commercial or utility scale.
• Proficient in electrical systems design including AC and DC circuits.

Responsibilities

• Design and review of Solar PV plants and EESS integration.
• Develop customer-specific photovoltaic concepts and yield simulations.

Skills

Solar PV system design

Electrical systems design

Inverter specification

Yield optimisation

Cable sizing

Technical report writing

Project management support

Education

Undergraduate degree in STEM

Membership of professional body

Tools

AutoCAD

PYSyst

PVSol

MSOffice

Job description

Description

With the UK government’s ambitious goal of delivering 60GW of solar power by 2030, Solar Careers UK are on a mission to help recruit, train, and place over 60,000 new professionals into rewarding careers within the solar and battery storage industry.

Solar Careers UK, is a division of the solar industry's trade association Solar Energy UK, who represent 425+ solar businesses, many that specialise in providing high quality solar installations to domestic, commercial, and utility-scale clients. We have been asked to assist them with the recruitment of full-time and permanent installation teams from across all regions of the United Kingdom.

Working within the commercial and industrial or utility-scale renewable energy sector with companies developing, building and operating solar and energy storage projects in the UK. The Design Engineer will undertake design and review of Solar PV plants and integration of Electrical Energy Storage Systems (EESS).

Responsibilities:

1. Systems specification, design, documentation and review in accordance with relevant ISO / IEC / BS standards, including IET PV CoP, BS 7671 18th Edition.
2. Development of customer-specific photovoltaic concepts as well as detailed design and implementation planning including yield simulations.
3. Authorising, reviewing and amending Low Voltage (LV), Single Line Diagrams (SLD) and schematics.
4. Electrical protection scheme design and review.
5. Appointing consultants and assessing grid compliance and earthing reports.
6. Low Voltage electrical equipment review, specification, selection and design to include Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), cable, meter, Current Transformer (CT), switchgear, filter, transformer, inverter.
7. Liaison with electrical equipment manufacturers, technical advisors and consultants.
8. Cable sizing and optimisation calculations according to installation conditions; issuing of LV and DC cable schedules for procurement and installation requirements.
9. Organising and analysis of topographical and utility survey results to support system design and piling locations.
10. Designing within planning constraints and flood risk assessment constraints. Support planning applications with design drawings. Evaluation of the technical implementation options and selection of suitable mounting system and modules considering local conditions.
11. Ensure compliance of design with considerations such as planning and structural engineering.
12. Technical support of sales and purchasing with layout and technical issues in the offer.
13. Technical support of the project managers in the construction and implementation phases of the project.
14. Close working and good communication with colleagues in Distribution network operator team (DNO), procurement, operations, legal, project development, project management and the subsidiaries.
15. Earthing system design and review.
16. Last planner system design review (LPS).
17. Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) – supplier proposal reviews: inverter and cell technology, sizing and optimisation calculations.
18. Issuing of commissioning and operational instructions documentation e.g. shutdown procedures; briefing notes for owners and technical advisors.
19. Maintain strict control of document register and track document changes.
20. Design systems to monitor energy flow, inverter parameters, export limitation and client load monitoring.
21. Interpretation of relevant ISO / IEC / BS standards and documentation of applicability to Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) designs.
22. Engineering calculations and operational data analysis e.g. plant performance, performance ratio analysis, operational losses etc.
23. Technical advisor reports: review, assessment and issuing of responses.
24. Site survey, construction inspection and As-Built document checks.

Requirements

Experience:

1. Professional Solar PV system design experience at commercial or utility scale.
2. Demonstrable knowledge of inverter specification, array sizing, yield optimisation, module selection and component assessments.
3. Proficient in electrical systems design, including electrical power circuits (High voltage, low voltage, AC and DC), SCADA, communications systems and other equipment.
4. Understanding of P28, G59/G99, G100 and similar Energy Networks Association (ENA) recommendations and design/implementation of solutions to meet these requirements.
5. Familiarity with electrical design packages to assist with cable sizing and/or protection, discrimination and optimisation.
6. Experienced user of the following software:
1. AutoCAD
2. PYSyst / PVSol
3. MSOffice (particularly Excel for data analytics), Outlook, SharePoint

Education:

1. Undergraduate degree in STEM subject; ideally Electrical Engineering, or equivalent professional experience and/or certifications.
2. Membership of professional body eg. Chartered Engineer desirable.