Role Description
At Wood Mackenzie, our competitive advantage lies in the depth and analytical rigor of our market‑leading research, and in the combined expertise of our dedicated consultants who specialize in energy and natural resources. As a Principal Consultant on the Power Market Modelling and Analysis team within the Americas Power & Renewables Consulting team, you will play a key role in our growing consulting practice leading the management and delivery of a wide range of commercial, transaction and strategic consulting projects. You will be a front-line leader involved in all aspects of the consulting process, from shaping the opportunity, performing the analysis, managing the project, and working closely with clients and Wood Mackenzie experts to develop insights to support critical client commercial and strategic decisions.
The Principal Consultant will be instrumental in developing the power market analytics for the North American power markets, running fundamental production cost models to generate regional, zonal and nodal power price forecasts, building scenario analysis, and supporting strategy, commercial advisory and portfolio/asset due diligence engagements. The role combines strong modelling execution with well-organized, fully documented deliverables and growing client responsibility.
This role requires strong execution and workstream management to deliver client mandates, with active coaching of the junior team members. The Principal Consultant is expected to work as part of a project team under the guidance of senior team members and forms a critical part of the project delivery team at Wood Mackenzie while increasing visibility with clients.
This role requires a high level of creative thinking, analytical and problem-solving abilities, and the application of detailed North American power market knowledge and experience to a broad range of consulting projects and client situations. These capabilities must be accompanied by a strong command of oral and written communication skills in both internal as well as external and client-facing environments. Additionally, outstanding team and project management capabilities, in a consulting context, are required for the purpose of this role.
Main Responsibilities
Project Management:
- Plan and manage project workstreams or parts of a bigger and more complex project against scope, timeline and budget, clarify priorities with the project team and keep all team members aligned
- Lead and manage the full life cycle of power market modelling engagements
- Plan and prioritise own workload and that of team members to ensure project objectives and deadlines are met
- Track progress against the project plan and flag risks, delays and scope changes early to the project director
- Keep clients and the project director updated on progress, and act as day-to-day client contact
- Oversee and review the contribution of junior team members and researchers to ensure high-quality deliverables, completed on time and within budget
- Support project close-out (project review, participant feedback, final deliverable and audit file archiving)
- Identify follow-up opportunities and raise them with the senior project team members
Business Development:
- Support senior team members in business development across the North American power markets, including proposals, scopes, modelling approach, effort estimates and in preparing a pitch deck
- Build a strong working-level relationship with our client base and support the pursuit of consulting opportunities
- Contribute to the development of North American power market modelling offerings and share best practices with the global sector teams
Thought Leadership:
- Generating innovative ideas and approaches to industry issues, both within the assignments and to the consulting practice as a whole
- Develop subject matter expertise in fundamental power market and production cost modeling and serve as a thought leader
- Develop quantitative models as needed to solve the business needs of the client
- Contribute to thought leadership through preparation of data, research, articles, webinars and conference presentations
Analysis:
- Lead, support and coach the project team in building, running, calibrating and validating results from production cost models (PCM) such as PLEXOS, AURORA, PROMOD, GridView, EnCompass etc.
- Develop a process to organize, QA/QC and interpret model results into clear dashboards, tables, charts and summaries that support the client scope
- Support preparation of client deliverables such as PowerPoint presentations, reports and Excel outputs with a clear storyline and results
- Review the work of junior staff members for accuracy, consistency and quality, and coach them on modelling and deliverables
- Extract and analyse data from internal and external sources such as ISO/RTO databases, websites, industry interviews and Wood Mackenzie proprietary data and products
- Demonstrate high standards of professionalism and attention to detail to ensure the highest quality analysis is delivered
- Take ownership for the analysis undertaken, and explain it to clients and project leads in a coherent and credible manner
Fundamental Power Market Modelling & Advisory:
- Develop long-term power price forecasts (energy, capacity, ancillary services) using capacity expansion and PCM simulations, and run scenario and sensitivity analyses summarizing the key value drivers
- Apply in-depth knowledge of regulated and deregulated North American power markets (ISO/RTO market design, policy and regulation) for PCM model setup, evaluating policy and regulatory framework to run scenario and sensitivity analyses explaining key value drivers and interpretation of study results
- Support nodal price forecast and with the ability to clearly explain key concepts, such as, shift factors, components of LMP, congestion, basis risk, curtailment and negative prices
- Lead interconnection, basis and congestion assessments, and pro forma preparation to support asset valuation
- Lead and develop asset dispatch tools using Python, SQL and AI tools
- Support buy-side and sell-side transaction advisory and asset due diligence such as merchant revenue forecasts, PPA and hedge analysis, and market studies for investors and lenders
Communication:
- Effective and timely communication with clients
- Demonstrate effective written and verbal communication and presentation skills, both internally and externally
- Establish good working relationships with colleagues across the business
- Manage project timelines, scope delivery, scope change effectively
- Present clearly and concisely to clients and colleagues
Teamwork:
- Proven effective cross team working skills, being able to work in an open and trusting way across the broader consulting, research and sales teams in Wood Mackenzie
- Adopt a flexible approach towards work
- Support consulting practice development by working with colleagues to understand what new offerings can be taken to clients
- Coach and mentor junior team members, providing timely, constructive feedback on modelling framework and deliverables
Knowledge & Experience Required
The Principal Consultant role is highly commercial combining analytical rigor, acute problem solving with skilled execution of deliverables. The individual will need to excel at nurturing client relationships and ensuring quality solutions that endeavour to exceed our client's expectations. Candidates will need to demonstrate the following skills and abilities:
- Direct experience within the power & renewables industry or in a related consulting environment with demonstrated experience in project management
- 7+ years of direct working experience at a power and/or renewables focused consulting firm, IPP, power utility, development company, infrastructure fund, bank, or other such analytical or consulting role in the power & renewables industry, including 5+ years of hands-on fundamental power market modelling
- Undergraduate degree in engineering, mathematics, physics, economics, or finance. Graduate degree, such as, MBA, MS or PhD is preferred
- In-depth understanding of power industry dynamics and North American power markets – market design, LMP formation and price formation, capacity and ancillary services constructs, resource adequacy and transmission; core technologies (wind, solar, BESS, gas/flexible resource), business models and strategies
- Analytical skills including but not limited to financial modelling and familiarity with power asset and/or market modelling (commercial) covering BESS and gas-fired generation
- Hands-on PCM experience with one or more of the following fundamental models: PLEXOS, AURORA, PROMOD, GridView, EnCompass or equivalent, including model setup, calibration, validation, scenario execution and interpretation of results
- Tool development skills and experience such as capacity price, scarcity price, ancillary service price and battery dispatch and thermal dispatch tools utilizing Python, SQL, AI tools (Claude, Copilot, Gemini)
- Exposure in interconnection assessment, basis, curtailment, congestion forecasting, shift factor analysis, asset dispatch, revenue forecasting, pro forma development and financial due diligence is highly valued
- Exposure to transaction advisory, price forecasts, scenario and sensitivity analysis and asset due diligence for investors, lenders, developers and IPPs is essential
- Strong deliverable preparation skills such as creating, organizing and QA/QC of model results into clear dashboards tables, charts, PowerPoint presentations and reports that turn analysis into client-ready deliverables
- Proven experience of working in a team environment is essential
- Excellent co
