Energy Advisor - West Africa Power Pool at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Key Responsibilities:

• TBI support will be provided directly to WAPP by the West Africa consultant. The following workstreams are proposed:
• Definition of a feasible market design for ancillary services to ensure the delivery of regional market
• WAPP is currently approving the WAPP Grid Code which requires generators to provide primary and secondary reserves, based on the technical characteristics of each power system. As regional trade is rapidly expanding and the network is becoming meshed, there is the necessity to develop a cross-country ancillary services market, that will ensure the effective implementation of trade, optimize costs and reduce even further the risk of blackouts.
• This workstream will also exploit the synergies with the current support that TBI is providing to the regional regulator ERERA: TBI will in fact assist WAPP in developing the principles of a regional ancillary services market that could complement the national provisions of ancillary services and eventually ensuring that trade physically happens. The preliminary activity that TBI will carry out will be a benchmark analysis of the provisions of cross-border ancillary services in other markets and would then ensure the political buy-in with key national governments and Utilities.
• Supporting the competitive procurement for digital solutions to enact power trade
• TBI will work with WAPP to develop two digital solutions that are necessary to enact cross-country trade. In particular:
• One to allocate the Physical Transmission Rights (PTR). TBI will support WAPP in all the steps of the procurement of a digital solution to update the existing Energy Trading System to include the PTR allocation. This can also include a preliminary design of the procedures for an auction-based allocation mechanism and its digital architecture.
• One for payment settlements. TBI will assist WAPP in setting out the procedures and the design of the digital architecture that will allow the secure and timely application of the financial settlement procedures. TBI will then accompany the Market Division Experts on the adoption and implementation of these procedures.
• Transaction advisory in the Sahel
• Upon request of the WAPP and in collaboration with ERERA, the national Utilities, the Governments, and their Development Partners, TBI will assist in the definition of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and the Transmission Service Agreement (TSA) to accelerate the integration of the Sahel within the wider WAPP system and ensure compliance of these agreements with the regional regulation. This could involve for example the North Core project.

Person Specification:

Experience:

• Extensive experience in a TSO, Utility, Regulator or consultancy on a technical role
• Engineering and/or economics background

Competencies and skills:

• This is a hybrid role (from remote and on business trips) that will require an extremely proactive and independent attitude. We are looking for enthusiastic and resilient individuals with a “can-do” outlook and the ability to consistently achieve results in a fast-paced environment. We are looking for an experienced leader with:
• Significant technical knowledge of power systems, with particular reference to market design, transmission networks and dispatching
• Clear understanding of power pool, ancillary services market and spot market functioning
• Solid knowledge of Energy Trading System and procedures for their implementation
• Ability to critically review a grid or market code and operational manuals
• Demonstrable expertise in setting out procedures and design of digital architecture for financial settlement procedures
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
• Excellent communication and influencing skills at executive office level through to technical level. Adept at speaking to senior leadership, knows how to navigate ambiguous environments and comfortable at managing up and beyond hierarchy
• Mastering of MS Office applications (Excel, Power Point and Word)
• Fluency in English is required, French is a plus
• Postgraduate degree preferred