In the ‘Our fixers’ series, each month we talk to a colleague about working at Novar. Everyone works in a different department, but with a common goal: fixing the energy transition. In part 4, we speak to Rob Kouwenberg, PPA Manager at Novar.
‘As a PPA manager, I try to sell our energy production in the best possible way. I look for potential buyers and negotiate the price formula and other conditions. All agreements end up in a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement), or power contract. Together with my two colleagues Maarten and Joran, we do this for existing and new and new solar farms, batteries, but also for other products such as heat solutions and green hydrogen.
What is a Power Purchase Agreement?
A PPA is a power purchase agreement between two parties, where one party produces the energy and the other takes and uses the energy. It contains all the terms and conditions of this agreement, such as the amount of electricity to be supplied and the corresponding price.
The electricity market is quite fickle. So the future value of electricity production is sometimes difficult to predict. If two parties have different views on that, I look for a solution. That is always the most fun, to find one anyway. A real challenge was the GHPA (Green Hydrogen Purchase Agreement), the contract for green hydrogen. Suddenly, the force field turned out to be different from electricity. Mind boggling! The important thing then is to get all the hidden assumptions to the surface. But when do you get everything?
Some topics in the electricity market are extremely complex. If I can properly convey a solution to all stakeholders, colleagues, contracting party, cooperatives, lawyers or bankers, I feel like a real fixer.
What attracts me to working at Novar is the scale of the projects and the guts to work on them. Building 200 megawatt substations myself, adding electrolyzers to a project and realising a big heat project. I really like contributing to that.
The strength of Novar? That all Novar teams continuously push on all aspects needed to develop new assets. The will to get it done, rather yesterday than today, is very inspiring.’
Do you want to work with us, do you have questions or do you want to pass on a change? Then contact us – we’re happy to help.
