Distributed-Energy Market Platform Recovery Leader — Urban Grid

The mandate

The DER-platform vice president was dismissed after battery and flexible-load dispatch records diverged from settlement quantities during two constrained-grid events. Physical operations remained safe, but participant notifications, telemetry qualification and fallback estimates cannot be reconstructed consistently. The regulator has requested a remediation plan before rehearing expansion of the aggregation programme, leaving an immediate executive control gap.

The interim must be in Houston within three weeks for twelve months, covering forensic review, two seasonal grid peaks, regulatory evidence and successor induction. A permanent search begins in month four after Operations and Markets agree the future accountability boundary. Six weeks of overlap are reserved; extension is possible only if a regulator moves the rehearing after technical handover is otherwise complete.

Handover requires every dispatch to resolve to eligible device population, grid instruction, telemetry quality, participant acknowledgement, actual response, fallback and settlement; the affected periods must be re-performed; and two production-equivalent events must meet control thresholds. The successor will command an unseen aggregator failure and accept residual device, communications, tariff and vendor limitations.

The interim may suspend aggregators, constrain automated dispatch, set telemetry acceptance, direct the authorised US$38 million remediation and appoint temporary control leads. Tariff interpretation, customer remedy, permanent appointment, risk-appetite change and spending above budget require Regulatory, Grid or board approval. The leader cannot direct field switching or override the control room’s safety authority.

Distribution network redesign, retail rate strategy and replacement of customer devices outside the affected programme are outside this assignment. The executive may require interfaces and evidence but does not own generation procurement, broad smart-meter modernisation or unrelated settlement changes. Recovery must remain focused on dispatch-to-settlement integrity and safe degraded operation.

Why this seat is open

The divergence exposed split ownership among grid operators, market settlement and partner platforms, followed by dismissal of the only executive spanning those teams. A regulatory deadline and seasonal peak preclude waiting for permanent recruitment. The utility needs a temporary operator who can restore evidential control without encroaching on licensed grid command.

What you will own

• Reconstruct disputed events across device eligibility, grid request, aggregator instruction, telemetry, participant response, fallback estimate and settlement.
• Define acceptance and confidence rules for device and feeder telemetry under latency, communications loss, aggregation and clock variance.
• Decide which aggregators or resource classes may dispatch normally, require caps, enter shadow mode or remain suspended.
• Direct constrained-grid exercises covering partial device response, stale baseline, communications outage, participant override and settlement replay.
• Establish reconciliation that preserves operational, market and customer perspectives rather than forcing premature agreement to one estimate.
• Govern remediation spend against trusted dispatch, measurable response, timely participant communication and reproducible settlement outcomes.
• Transfer authority through an unseen event, regulatory evidence review and successor acceptance of unresolved device and tariff dependencies.

Candidate qualifications

• Held executive platform or market-systems authority in an electricity utility, system operator, DER aggregator or virtual power plant.
• Reconciled dispatch telemetry and settlement for distributed batteries, demand response, solar or controllable load during constrained events.
• Designed degraded operation across unreliable devices and aggregators without compromising control-room safety authority.
• Presented event reconstruction and remediation evidence to an electricity regulator or market oversight body.
• Suspended or constrained commercial participants when telemetry or control evidence failed despite programme-growth pressure.
• Handed a recovered market platform to permanent leadership through live seasonal operation and unannounced exercise.

Non-negotiables

• Available within three weeks for exclusive Houston service, including on-site command through severe grid events.
• Has personally governed DER dispatch and settlement; generic utility IT or energy trading experience is insufficient.
• No undisclosed financial relationship with aggregators, device makers, platform vendors or settlement advisers in scope.
• Will preserve licensed control-room authority and customer evidence even if doing so delays programme expansion.

1. 49 words maximum. State your Houston availability and one DER event whose dispatch-to-settlement difference you reconstructed.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you qualify telemetry when an aggregator reported availability that individual devices did not deliver?
3. 49 words maximum. Which unseen failure would you use to test safe dispatch degradation before successor handover?