Project Manager

79979 - Project Manager

This Project Manager will report to the DER Development Manager and will work within Connections based in our London, Maidstone or Crawley offices with other regional locations considered, but will require occasional travel to London. You will be on a 12-month fixed term contract.

You will attract a salary of £61,723 and a bonus of 3%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 05/03/2025.

We also provide the following additional benefits

• 25 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays. 
• Reservist Leave – Additional 18 days full pay and 22 unpaid
• Personal Pension Plan – Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
• Tenancy Loan Deposit Scheme, Season Ticket Loan
• Tax efficient benefits: Cycle to Work, Home & Tech, and Green Car Leasing Schemes
• Occupational Health support
• Switched On – scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers’ products
• Discounted gym membership
• Employee Assistance Programme

Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) are at the heart of the energy transition and UK Power Networks has committed to playing an important role in supporting Net Zero. Changes are being made to the connections journey for customers via Connections Reform and the Governments Clean Power 2030 mission sets out several key challenges.

The volume of applications for the connection of generation to our network has increased over the last few years. UK Power Networks are required to notify NESO (National Energy System Operator) of any connection applications it receives that may have an impact on the transmission system. In turn NESO make a Connection Offer to UK Power Networks. This relationship is manged by DSO. The downstream relationship of making subsequent Connection Offers is managed by Connections and whereas the relationship manged by DSO is on 1-2-1 basis the downstream relationship is on a one-to-many basis. In some instances one Connection Offer from NESO may translate into 30 Connection Offers to UK Power Networks customers.

To make Connection Offers to customers, it is necessary to extract information from the NESO Offer. This information often needs manipulating and costs need to be apportioned among customers driving the works.

NESO have embarked upon a Connections Reform journey and many Connection Offers from NESO will be revisited and revised requiring UK Power Networks to review its Connection Offers to customers.

JOB PURPOSE:

As the Project Manager in the DER Team you will provide assurance on a portfolio of NESO Contracts (from a Connections customer perspective) from inception to conversion to UK Power Networks Connection offer. This will require liaison with internal and external stakeholders to reduce financial risk/exposure.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Liaison with important partners such as DSO, planning engineers, legal, network development engineers, and finance teams to ensure accurate information is gathered for inclusion in Connection Offers
• Review NESO Connection Offers and provide feedback
• Translate complex technical and financial concepts into terms which can be communicated to the business
• Provide a comprehensive summary of information to other members of DER Development Team to enable Early Notice Letters to be sent to customers
• Provide Major Connections Teams with all information necessary to allow Connection offers to be prepared promptly – information to include details of works required at transmission and distribution, estimated costs and completion dates
• Support Major Connections Project Managers at meetings with customers to provide explanation of works, costs and timescales
• Produce GSP summaries for DER and Major Connections Teams
• Collate, manage and share relevant project level information to ensure accurate reporting and publication of the embedded capacity register
• Manage risk and deliver value for UK Power Networks
• Deliver excellent internal customer service to support external customer service
• Identify and support related items of business change and improvement.
• MM statement – check security

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• An understanding of the electricity distribution and transmission businesses with a knowledge of Connection policy with commercial acumen to manage contracts
• Project/Portfolio management skills (workloads, forecasting, key dates and project planning)
• An understanding of regulatory funding and charging mechanisms
• Customer and stakeholder management skills
• Ideally you will have an Electrical Engineering qualification (HNC preferred but not essential) – just as important is an understanding of transmission and distribution networks, and a preparedness to review, investigate and challenge.
• A Project Management qualification (Prince 2) is also desirable.

NATURE AND SCOPE

The DER Team is part of the Service Delivery Team which in turn is part of the Connections Directorate. The DER team works with the Major Connections Team and provides support in the delivery of Connection Offers to Customers. As we transition to Connections Reform in Q2 2025 there will be the need to review circa 150 NESO contracts (total value of contracts £100's millions) with a greater number of Connections Offers to customers.

The role of the Project Manager in the DER Team is to act as an interface/point of reference between NESO Connection offers and Major Connections Teams in making Connection Offers to Customers.

The Project Manager will work with existing members of the DER team to provide excellent internal service to the Major Connections Teams and will be required to "muck-in" with wider team activities such as preparing material for external events.

Health & Safety Responsibilities

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees, those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken, i.e. public, visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding, competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment, and where there are legal requirements, employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

If you have any queries in connection to this vacancy or your application, please contact us at careers@ukpowernetworks.co.uk quoting the vacancy reference number and a member of the team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.