Generation Operations interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background + renewable generation operations experience.
2. Tell me about a renewable operations event or initiative you've handled.
3. Why renewable generation operations vs thermal generation, grid ops, or OEM service?
4. Why this kind of renewable fleet - wind / solar / BESS / hybrid, PPA-heavy vs merchant?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our fleet + recent operational events?
7. Tell me what you understand about our NERC compliance + OEM service posture.
8. Walk me through an availability or production underperformance event you handled.

Technical concepts to master

• Wind plant operations - onshore + offshore

  Turbine + drivetrain + control · Power curve + capacity test · Common failure modes · PMI cadence + crane lifts · Offshore-specific - vessels + access

• Utility-scale solar PV operations

  Inverter + transformer + tracker · Performance ratio + losses · Common failure modes · Soiling + cleaning + vegetation · IR + drone + I-V curve testing

• BESS operations + cycling + warranty

  Lithium-ion architecture · C-rate + duration + use case · Cycling + warranty budget · Augmentation · Thermal management + fire safety

• OEM FSA / FMSA + warranty + availability guarantees

  FSA / FMSA (Full Service Agreement) · Availability guarantee + accounting · Serial defect campaigns · Parts pool + lead time · Warranty claim process

Practical drills

• At your 200 MW DC / 150 MW AC utility solar site, APM flags that 8 of 50 central inverters have been producing 15-20% below peer inverters for 3 weeks. Soiling is uniform across the site; meteo + irradiance match. Walk through your next 48 hours.
• Your 300 MW wind farm sells 80% under PPA (with a curtailment cap clause - up to 5% / yr at no compensation) and 20% merchant in an ISO seeing negative LMP intervals. Day-ahead forecast shows 6 hours of $-8/MWh LMP overnight + 2 hours of moderate-positive LMP. PTC eligibility requires actual generation. Walk through your dispatch + curtailment posture.
• Your 100 MW / 200 MWh BESS in ERCOT has cleared $80/MW-hr RegUp + RegDown awards 5 days/week. Warranty budget is 6,000 cycles at 100% DoD over 15 years - you're tracking at 1.4x the planned annual cycle consumption due to AS dispatch + RegD mileage. Walk through your decision.

Smart-question anchors

• Fleet mix + ISO markets - wind / solar / BESS / hybrid MW + MWh, ISO / RTO footprint, PPA share
• Availability + performance - TBA / PBA, PR, capacity factor, recent forced outage or serial-defect events
• OEM FSA + warranty - turbine / inverter / battery OEM partners, FSA tenor, recent campaigns
• NERC GO + GOP posture - audit findings, CIP maturity, PRC-024 + MOD model validation status
• Curtailment + dispatch - negative LMP exposure, PPA caps, RA penalties, tax-credit posture

Sourced from

NERC Reliability Standards - GO + GOP standards applied to Inverter-Based Resources · IEC 61400 wind turbine standards + IEEE 2800 IBR interconnection standard + NFPA 855 BESS safety · ISO / RTO market manuals (ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, MISO, SPP, NYISO, ISO-NE) + curtailment + tax-credit guidance · Wood Mackenzie + BNEF + S&P Global Commodity Insights renewable + storage market reports · EIA-860 + 923 + NERC GADS Wind + Solar + DOE Office of Energy Efficiency renewable performance reports