We’re proud of the intelligent, passionate, and hardworking people that make up the Bright Power team. Each month, you’ll get a chance to meet one of them, understand how they contribute to the organization, and what makes them excited to come to work every day.
Meet Jesse Petersen, Sales Operations Manager.
What are some of the things you like most about working at Bright Power?
I like working with people who can think for themselves and are discerning when presented with information. We have a working environment where my colleagues strive to be constructive, challenge you to question what you think you know, and they work hard to help each other learn. This approach accelerates one’s growth in their everyday job.
What are some projects and accomplishments you’re most proud of?
Putting rhyme and reason to our pricing process through collaboration with the Account Management, Engineering, and Operations teams. This includes formalizing our service products and standardizing our scopes of work for each of Bright Power’s 83 (yeah that many) service offerings. I don’t think Google even has that many service offerings!
Establishing stronger relationships with the implementation contractors and utilities as a key incentive program partner. Many programs look to us for direction in their program design and often elicit our input before rolling out new or revised incentive programs. I think I’ve made a positive contribution to that process in advocating on behalf of our clients’ interests be it with the Public Service Commission, ConEdison, NYSERDA, PSE&G, the NJ BPU, or with the implementation contractors in California.
What’s something people might not know about you and your role at Bright Power?
I have a hand in many facets of our business and have worked with each executive and their teams on various projects. I work regularly with the Engineering Directors to develop our scopes of services and price our contracts, and have even occasionally taken on project management duties. I also provide our engineers advisory support on incentive program project staging and incentive payment coordination. In the recent past, I’ve worked with the Energy Analysts on generating utility usage data sets to identify sites for potential Distributed Energy Resource (DER) applications, developed Salesforce re-designs for our pricing intake process with the Operations team, assisted Legal with modifying the terms and conditions of our contracts, and have co-authored responses to RFPs&Qs for our Executive and Strategic Initiatives teams.
As Bright Power’s Sales Operations Manager, I combine the work I do across divisions to build the infrastructure we need to improve our business and operational needs with the work of distilling technical and programmatic information (including incentives, financing, and public policy) for the Account Managers and their clients.
What are some of the incentive programs you’ve worked with and which of these have worked really well for our clients?
As primary liaison for Bright Power’s incentive program partnerships, I’ve worked with NYSERDA’s Multifamily Performance Program (MPP), NY-Sun, Combined Heat-and-Power (CHP), and Real-Time Energy Management (RTEM) programs as well as ConEdison’s Multifamily Energy Efficiency (MFEEP), Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency (CIEEP), Demand Management (DMP), and Non-Wires Solutions programs here in New York. I’ve also worked closely with the Board of Public Utilities’ clean energy programs and the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) in New Jersey. Other states and programs I’ve been active in include Connecticut’s Energize CT Program, the Mass Save Program in Massachusetts, Pepco’s Multifamily programs in Maryland and Washington D.C., as well as California-based multifamily programs in the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE) and SoCal Gas service territories.
I think the NY-Sun incentive program has worked pretty well in making solar more accessible for our clients. It shaves a good percentage off our costs for installing solar systems and is structured in a way that’s transparent and easy to understand. The MW-block structure allows us to know in advance the amount of incentives a project is eligible for before the work begins and that predictability makes the prospect of installing solar a more convincing proposition. This incentive has also been bolstered by the federal investment tax credit (ITC) and the precipitous decline in the cost of solar PV modules over the last decade but the NY-Sun incentive has made the investment decision easier, particularly in New York City where it can still be quite expensive to do solar work. Since 2000, the NY-Sun program has incentivized over 217 MW of installed capacity (DC) in the “small commercial” sector alone–that’s the project sector Bright Power participates in the most. This sector represents 20% of all the installed capacity in the state that’s gone through the NY-Sun program. Bright Power has installed over 6 MWs of solar since 2010 which is an impressive chunk of that market, especially when you consider the constraints of working with limited roof space in the five boroughs of New York City.