Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), New Delhi
Programme Associate – Power Procurement, Power Sector

Terms of Reference

Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has been Great Place to Work-Certified™.

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Designation Offered Programme Associate – Power Procurement, Power Sector

Reporting to Senior Programme Lead/ Fellow

Location New Delhi

Purpose

CEEW seeks to hire a Programme Associate for its Power Sector team. Our power sector programme is driven with the mission to support the clean energy transition in India by examining and promoting operational, financial, and environmental sustainability throughout the value chain of the electricity sector. One of our key focus areas involves studying the evolving landscape of power demand in the country and supporting the power utilities transition to a clean energy future through market-based power procurement. We are looking for an experienced hire to support and expand our work in this area.

The role involves the assessment of existing demand in the states from current users – homes, industries, agriculture and commercial entities, and changes in their requirements over time. In addition, emerging use cases from technological changes such as penetration of EVs, electric cooking, shifting to electricity in industrial applications are equally important, which can shift the total quantum of need and also the time periods when the need manifests. This changing demand and a shift in supply to renewable energy sources, when superimposed with current power procurement practice will necessitate a review of extant contracting and embedding the emerging market mechanisms in the power sector into the practices of state agencies. Putting this into practice is the core of the role on offer.

Job Duties and Accountabilities

• Developing appropriate methodologies and tools to study the power demand patterns across key sectors along with their drivers at various levels of disaggregation
• Studying the barriers and opportunities for power utilities in transitioning to market-based power dispatch operations
• Engaging closely with our partner discoms in developing transition trajectories and identifying innovative solutions (policy, regulatory, financial, institutional) to move away from traditional procurement practices
• Developing and deploying pilots as proof of concept for the proposed transition and assessing their potential for scaling up
• Tracking the regulatory and policy developments on this issue and leading the team to develop and communicate informed commentary to all key stakeholders 
• Develop research outputs in various forms such as publications, journal papers, reports, op-eds, and articles.
• Support other CEEW colleagues in building their capacity on this subject and strengthen data handling skills. 
• Work with senior researchers on conceptualising new projects (as and when needed) 
• To participate in relevant conferences, workshops, training programmes as necessary to communicate research findings and gain insights on new research in focus areas.
• Support efforts to use new media platforms for the wide dissemination of CEEW's work and, in turn, closer engagement with the wider community.

Selection Criteria

Education and experience

• Bachelor’s or Master’s (preferred) degree in engineering and/or economics. Candidates with a graduate degree in relevant disciplines such as public policy, energy engineering, energy management are also encouraged to apply
• Functional knowledge of emerging forecasting techniques and their implementation in a practical context is a pre-requisite
• Experience in carrying out econometric assessments and bottom-up assessments of power demand would be seen favourably. 
• Technical knowledge of the power sector issues and evolving discourse on the power markets.
• Technical knowledge of emerging technology solutions and automated tools relevant to the sector.
• A minimum of 5 – 6 years of relevant experience in forecasting, market assessments, choice modelling, power market operations and
• Experience in delegating and managing tasks across teams will be seen favourably , as the hire will be expected to lead a minimum of two projects simultaneously.

Travel

• Candidate must be willing to travel to locations where CEEW has established collaborations with state agencies to further the research and implementation programme. The candidate must be flexible in accommodating periodic travel and ad-hoc meeting requests in the states with partner entities.

Key Skills

• Ability to motivate the team and younger colleagues to think critically about emerging research questions.
• A functioning knowledge of the power sector in order to engage closely with state actors
• Proficiency in Excel and one or more analytical tools (Pyhton/R/Stata) is a must. Experience with visualisation tools like tableau and spatial analysis tools would be a bonus.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Proficiency in Hindi (spoken at least) and English is a must. Knowledge of regional languages, that would aid collabo
• Experience in dealing with different stakeholders, including central and state government officials, discom officials, and the research community would be a beneficial

Personality

• Willingness to work on multi-disciplinary projects.
• Willingness to learn new research and project management skills.
• Ability to identify creative solutions to vexing challenges in taking policy to action.
• Ability to adapt and deliver under tight deadlines in a professional environment.
• Ability to effectively work in a team while being able to independently drive the work with minimum assistance.
• Ability and willingness to dig deeper into details, while also keeping a sense of the broader objectives and big picture.
• Willingness to learn, grow and develop at a personal and professional front, at a rapid pace with a steep learning curve.
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary and multicultural environment.

CEEW operates in a dynamic environment and the candidate will be required to show flexibility in undertaking a variety of tasks.

Compensation

CEEW offers competitive compensation commensurate to the experience and matching the best of standards adopted by industry or other similar organizations for similar roles.

Application

CEEW is an equal opportunity employer and the selection process does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, or sexuality. Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

We review applications on a rolling basis. Interested applicants are advised to apply at the earliest possible.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We appreciate your interest.