William Mack Knight ’11Journal #1
My first week at Just Energy has been heavily focused on getting me up to speed on the solar industry, renewable incentives and regulations, the Just Energy business model, and what roles we all play within the company. Given the start-up nature of the company, there isn’t very much of a structured training process. The majority of my learning has come from a brief overview from a co-worker, the Internet, reading materials, and, primarily, attempting projects on my own and asking lots of questions along the way.
Just Energy currently employs about 14 people, including myself. In general, the team is divided into designers/engineers, business development/financial analysts, and the founding partners. Everyone has titles, but our roles seem to be pretty flexible and need-based. Given the structured nature of my previous work at an investment bank, it’s interesting to be working for a company that is still discovering new ways to improve, evolving its business model, fine-tuning its operations, etc.
In its most basic form, what Just Energy does is enter into a contract with a client that allows us, with the help of solar contractors, to build a solar system on the client’s property. Just Energy owns, operates, and maintains the system. The contract also establishes an agreed upon price at which the client will purchase energy produced by the system for the length of the contract, often as long as 25-year, eliminating energy price uncertainty. This is known as a Power Purchase Agreement. The agreement can be structured in a number of ways, and Just Energy will customize it to suit its client’s needs.
Journal #2
Now a few weeks into my internship, I’ve learned a huge amount about the solar industry and project finance, as well as both the benefits and challenges of working for a fairly new company. My role has also been fleshed out. In addition to trying to learn as much as I can about what Just Energy does, the solar industry, and relevant regulatory policies, much of my time thus far has been spent filling out and refining the company’s primary finance model. I’ll also be working on a strategic business plan for expanding the company’s operations into Pennsylvania, which has different regulations and incentives than New Jersey, and the financial feasibility of doing so.
Just prior to my arrival, numerous client meetings had been set up at a rate not yet experienced by Just Energy. This made for some hectic weeks, long days, and late nights, but also forced me to get up the learning curve quickly, as I was almost immediately assigned client pitches to complete, each analyzing and presenting a solar opportunity in an effort to get business. Although some of our business opportunities come through existing relationships, we often find we are facing stiff competition from other solar developers, and our potential customers have the luxury of picking any one company with which to work. However, we seem to be getting good traction with some clients, as these clients are responding well to Just Energy’s exhaustive design analysis and comprehensive presentations, which we believe is one of the differentiating factors that distinguish us from the company’s competitors.
We work closely with an engineering and design team that performs meticulous property measurements and shading analyses, after which a preliminary project layout can be constructed. It is with this information that I run the finance model, customizing it for the specific structure of each project and the various nuances associated with them.
Journal #3
Now in the closing days of my summer internship, I can truly say that I’ve seen Just Energy develop and mature as a company, even within the relatively short time I’ve been working there. The company finance model has been improved and refined, our business procedure and internal operations have been streamlined, we are considering parking solar structures, as well as roof structures, allowing us to pursue projects multiple times larger than we were previously, and we are in the late stages of discussions with multiple customers who will likely agree to work with Just Energy on large solar energy systems. In addition, we will be breaking ground on a few projects at the end of the summer and in fall. It’s definitely an exciting time for the company, and I believe there are more exciting times ahead, as Just Energy wins business, implements projects, and grows as a budding solar energy developer.
I’m disappointed I won’t be around to see actual construction, but I hope to visit the Just Energy offices in September, as well as spend some time on construction sites to see the implementation of our solar energy systems and the results of all our hard work.
