About Silicon Valley Clean Energy

Formed in 2016, Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) is a public Community Choice Energy service provider serving approximately 270,000 residential and commercial customer accounts in thirteen Santa Clara County communities. SVCE’s mission is to provide customers with renewable and carbon-free electricity at competitive rates, and further accelerate decarbonization through deployment of innovative local programs. Key program areas include: building electrification, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, battery storage and demand management programs. Since the organization’s service launch in 2017, SVCE has provided clean to all residential and commercial energy customers in SVCE’s member communities, carbon-free electricity.  SVCE has saved its customers more than $90M and dedicated $84M to customer offers, programs and services. SVCE is a joint-powers agency governed by a Board of Directors comprised of an elected official from each of SVCE’s thirteen member communities. 

By providing reliable and responsive carbon-free electricity service at competitive rates, SVCE maintains a 96+% customer participation rate and a strong financial foundation. Access to carbon-free electricity has helped our communities take a major step in fighting climate change, reducing local emissions by more than 30% from a 2015 baseline. Yet supplying clean electricity is just the start.  It is essential that SVCE continues to proactively engage with our customers and community stakeholders in the electrification journey - helping to inspire, educate, and enable action in transitioning from fossil fuels to clean electricity – in homes, buildings, and transportation. 

The SVCE Culture

Achieving SVCE’s ambitious and urgent mission requires a team capable of meeting the tremendous challenges embedded in these goals. SVCE develops and fosters a diverse and talented team that thrives in a dynamic and fast-changing environment. As such, at SVCE we recruit and retain smart, passionate, innovative, and collaborative employees. Company employees contribute, as a team and as individuals, to continuously building and supporting a culture of collaboration and trust. SVCE employees encourage creativity and the free flow of ideas to spur innovation. The workplace environment is adaptable, and technology enabled to drive innovative solutions. SVCE emphasizes focus and prioritization across departments to achieve quality, rather than simply quantity of output. SVCE provides a rewarding workplace experience where productivity can be maintained across a variety of work environments. SVCE provides opportunities for growth, engagement, and support professional and personal development. SVCE offers opportunities that position their people, as well as SVCE, for success.

More information can be found at: www.svcleanenergy.org

About the Role

 The Senior Energy Services Specialist position works under the general supervision of the Energy Services Manager and has responsibility for a wide range of customer service, program management and community development, business development, and technical support matters. Responsibilities include general customer service, responding to customer inquiries, billing and data analysis, and providing presentations to business and community groups related to SVCE offers and services.

The Senior Energy Services Specialist works directly with residential and/or business customers, community stakeholders and solution providers via email and telephone, and through in-person meetings and interactions. They are expected to be highly knowledgeable in SVCE service offerings, providing customers or other staff with technical explanations of electricity rates, energy programs, and related organizational and operational mechanisms. They work effectively in a highly cross- functional organization, acting as both a customer advocate and advisor.

To be effective, the Senior Energy Services Specialist will also need to develop expertise with PG&E programs and billing mechanisms to help customers optimize electric usage and electrification activities and analyze and explain usage and billing data. A Senior Energy Services Specialists will be assigned with tasks related to the development, implementation, and/or administration of various SVCE customer-focused activities and offerings with a moderate degree of autonomy.

The Senior Energy Services Specialist position is differentiated from the Energy Services Specialist position based upon a higher degree of responsibility for handling complex or strategically valuable accounts, organizational and program management skills and expertise, depth of industry and energy-related expertise, customer service experience, program delivery and operational experience. A Senior Energy Services Specialist will be expected to work both independently and collaboratively across SVCE departments, as well as with external stakeholders in order to achieve its goals.

Supervision Received and Exercised

The Senior / Energy Services Specialist position reports to the Energy Services Manager and includes some supervision of consultants and contractors.

Essential Functions

Customer and Community Relations:

• Establish relevant key account contacts and maintain relationships
• Provide direct support for inquiries from key accounts
• Identify customer needs through direct meetings, surveys, events
• Match customers with SVCE services and programs based on needs
• Deliver effective customer correspondence of complex topics
• Measure and communicate GHG and savings results with communities, key accounts
• Participate in relevant industry and working groups, advisory boards

Project Management:

• Engage in operational design, deployment and administration of key projects
• Communicate with customers as a primary point of contact with SVCE
• Vendor negotiations, contracting and management of deliverables
• Provide knowledge and expertise in (some combination of):
• • Electric vehicle and EV charging systems
  • Building systems, e.g. HVAC/mechanical, electrical, controls
  • Solar, NEM and storage
  • Demand management programs
  • Building codes, especially related to energy consumption
  • Facilities management

Customer Rates and Offerings:

• Assist with development and maintenance of SVCE electricity rates and rate programs
• Implement new PG&E /CPUC-initiated programs and rate structures
• Assist with development of competitive customized energy service offerings for large commercial/industrial (C&I) customers
• Support customer-specific analytics and modeling for custom offerings
• Identify, document and support new business development opportunities

Customer Operations:

• Support call center operations, and customer escalations
• Support detailed utility bill inquiries, including complex NEM, storage, commercial and EV rates
• Perform rate and cost comparisons for residential and commercial customers
• Support general bill- and energy-related inquiries from customers and other stakeholders
• Effectively utilize SVCE CRM and customer data analytics systems in support of customer interactions
• Support NEM and NBT transitions, billing, and cash-outs
• Manage customer metrics, e.g. opt outs, load statistics, forecast info
• Engage effectively with SVCE billing services provider and PG&E collaborators

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Knowledge and experience with:

• Electrification and decarbonization principles, programs, and best practices
• Renewable vs. carbon-free vs. fossil fuel-based electricity
• Utility billing structures, bill presentment, and program operations
• Investor-owned utilities and/or Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) programs, the interaction between CCAs and investor-owned utilities, and SVCE services
• Principles of effective account management, marketing and salesmanship
• Microsoft Excel intermediate proficiency required, advanced proficiency considered highly desirable
• Knowledge of database querying languages considered highly desirable
• Microsoft Office Suite, including Power Point and Word
• Appropriate telephone and e-mail etiquette

Ability to:

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with industrial, commercial and residential customers
• Communicate effectively with customers and co-workers at varying responsibility levels from junior level to decision-maker
• Take responsibility and work independently, as well as coordinate or participate in team efforts
• Develop effective and compelling presentations
• Effectively utilize data, estimation, heuristics, and reporting
• Demonstrate creative problem solving and commercial awareness
• Communicate effectively both verbally (by phone and in-person) and in written form
• Manage projects and time efficiently
• Represent SVCE with confidence and enthusiasm
• Manage multiple priorities and quickly adapt to changing priorities in a fast paced, dynamic environment

Willingness to:

• Work occasional overtime or on weekends and evenings

Required Qualifications

Experience and Training Guidelines: Any combination of experience and training that would likely provide the required knowledge and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain the knowledge and abilities would be:

Education:

• A Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited university or college is required in engineering, environmental science, operations management, business/economics or closely related field, or other degrees with demonstrable and commensurate work experience that are directly relevant for this position.
• A Master’s Degree or building trades experience is highly desirable.

Experience:

3-6 years progressively responsible customer-facing experience with clean energy-related products or services at an energy services company, corporate/commercial facilities engineering, design, management or consulting company, electric utility, energy or buildings-related department of a public agency, energy products company, or a related organization. 

License/Certificates:

One or more professional certifications, including, but not limited to Certified Energy Manager (CEM), Business Energy Professional (BEP), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) preferred but not required.

Physical and Working Conditions

The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions.

Environment:

Work is performed in a typical office setting with exposure to computer screens and at public events (fairs, meeting rooms, farmers’ markets, etc.) with moderate noise and will require some evening and weekend work. The noise level in the work environment is usually typical of an office environment and public events.

Location:

This position is hybrid flexible to Sunnyvale, CA.

Physical:

While performing the duties of this class, employees are regularly required to sit, walk, and stand; talk or hear, in person and by telephone; reach with hands and arms. Employees are occasionally required to walk, and stand for prolonged periods; stoop, bend, kneel and twist; and may lift up to twenty pounds. Employees must be able to communicate in person, in writing, and by telephone with Board members, management, co-workers, vendors, consultants, and with the public in face-to-face, one-on-one, and group settings.

Vision:

See in the normal visual range with or without correction; vision sufficient to read computer screens and printed documents; and operate assigned equipment.

Hearing:

Hear in the normal audio range with or without correction.

-----SVCE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER-----