Project Development Lead

Responsibilities (What-How-Why)

Fully

Partially

Supportive

Project Management

The Project Development Lead manages cross-functional workstreams and complex schedules to ensure a seamless transition from concept to execution.

The Project Management pillar is the operational engine that drives an asset from initial concept to an execution-ready state. This role goes beyond basic timeline tracking; the Project Development Lead designs integrated master schedules that coordinate engineering, legal, financial, and regulatory workstreams. Key competencies include critical-path analysis, proactive risk mitigation, and the ability to dynamically reallocate resources as development conditions change. Effective coordination is essential at this stage, as unmanaged dependencies quickly lead to project delays and budget overruns.

What: Executes the strategic directives set by the Project Development Head and maintains strict alignment of all Technical Working Group (TWG) outcomes and focus group discussions.

How: Translates the strategic directions, objectives, and project mandates set by the Project Development Head into concrete, actionable parameters for the Technical Working Group (TWG). The Lead actively facilitates and monitors focus group outcomes, stepping in to recalibrate discussions whenever a specific workstream begins to drift from the core project mandate.

Why: To maintain absolute continuity between the vision and granular, working-level execution. This ensures that the time, design work, and analytical energy expended by the TWG remain completely focused on delivering the specific asset profile requested for the project.

X

What: Facilitates the cross-functional TWG discussions.

How: Convenes regular, structured alignment meetings with representatives from engineering, finance, legal, regulatory, and strategy teams to review development progress and share updates.

Why: To break down corporate silos early in the lifecycle, ensuring that changes made in one workstream (e.g., technical design) are immediately evaluated for impacts on other areas (e.g., financial modeling or permitting timelines).

X

What: Leads the working-level focus group discussions with the TWG.

How: Deep-dives into highly specialized technical, commercial, or regulatory roadblocks with sub-groups of subject matter experts to isolate problems and map out tactical solutions.

Why: To unblock specific engineering or execution dependencies that cannot be resolved in high-level meetings, keeping the development process moving forward efficiently.

X

What: Creates and maintains the Consolidated Action Log of the TWG and ensures that all items are delivered on-schedule.

How: Tracks action items, assigns clear owners, sets realistic deadlines, and consistently follows up with team members to update completion statuses.

Why: To maintain organizational accountability across all departments, preventing critical task delays from creating a domino effect that impacts the project's baseline schedule.

X

What: Creates and maintains the Project Risk Management Plan (PRMP) and ensures that the Risk Treatment Plans are properly coordinated with the TWG.

How: Identifies, logs, and ranks engineering, commercial, and regulatory risks, then works directly with the TWG to design actionable risk-mitigation strategies.

Why: To build a proactive project defense, ensuring the team is prepared to minimize or avoid issues before they result in project delays or budget inflation.

X

What: Leads the diverse pool of consultants to achieving the desired outcomes.

How: Directs the activities, scopes of work, and milestones of outsourced technical, environmental, and legal advisors, matching their specialized deliverables to project deadlines.

Why: To extract maximum value from external services, ensuring consultant studies are accurate, delivered on time, and immediately usable by the internal development team.

X

What: Develops, manages and updates the integrated master project schedule, identifying and monitoring the critical path to completion.

How: Uses scheduling software to map out all cross-functional dependencies, tracking development progress against target development gates and milestones.

Why: To maintain a clear, birds-eye view of project progress and recognize schedule risks early enough to dynamically adjust resources and protect the target commercial operations date (COD).

X

What: Assists the Project Development Head in Preparing the project readiness documentation and justifications for formal stage-gate reviews (e.g., IC presentation, SteerCo decision, etc.).

How: Compiles completed deliverables, updated financial assumptions, and cleared regulatory milestones from the TWG to prove the project has met the entry criteria for the next development phase.

Why: To ensure the project moves cleanly through internal corporate governance structures, giving executives the confidence to release additional development capital.

X

What: Tracks development expenditure and controls project scope stability during the pre-construction phase.

How: Monitors development spend against the approved budget and evaluates any proposed adjustments or study expansions to see how they impact the baseline.

Why: To prevent scope creep and budget overruns during early design stages, keeping development costs within parameters that preserve overall project economics.

X

What: Creates and maintains the project RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix.

How: Maps out every key deliverable and milestone across the development lifecycle, collaborating with the Technical Working Group (TWG) and department heads to explicitly assign who executes the work (R), who owns the final decision (A), who provides subject-matter expertise (C), and who must be updated on progress (I).

Why: To eliminate organizational ambiguity, prevent duplicate efforts, and streamline decision-making across highly interconnected, cross-functional teams.

X

Technical

The Lead connects engineering requirements with project economics, directing Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and evaluating tender proposals to deliver a viable, cost-optimized asset.

The Technical pillar focuses on defining and optimizing the engineering parameters of the asset to ensure technical feasibility, safety, and performance. The Project Development Lead directs engineering teams through the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) stage to clearly define project scope, baseline costs, and technical risks. Additionally, the Lead facilitates and evaluates complex tender proposals from vendors and contractors, ensuring that commercial bids align with the project's technical realities. The core challenge is maintaining balance between engineering standards and economic viability to prevent design flaws or inflated capital expenditures (CAPEX).

What: Creates the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED), including the Minimum Functional Specifications (MFS) of the Energy Storage Systems (ESS) and the Balance-of-Plant (BOP).

How: Translates high-level project objectives into specific technical requirements. The Lead defines the equipment parameters (e.g., battery chemistry, performance metrics, thermal management) and designs the auxiliary systems (BOP) required to connect the asset to the grid.

Why: To establish a clear, unalterable technical baseline. A comprehensive FEED and MFS prevent vendor scope gaps, minimize expensive change orders later, and ensure the facility operates safely and efficiently.

X

What: Facilitates the creation of the Owner’s Requirements Document (ORD)

How: Consolidates all technical requirements, internal engineering standards, and baseline commercial constraints into a centralized document that acts as the blueprint for project design.

Why: To ensure that any external contractor or vendor explicitly understands what the owner expects regarding asset quality, life cycle, and performance metrics before design begins.

X

What: Identifies the pain points and gathers insights from ongoing and previous projects for continuous improvement of the ORD

How: Reviews post-mortem reports, operation data, and construction bottlenecks from legacy projects, extracting lessons learned to actively patch gaps or refine criteria in the current ORD template.

Why: To prevent the repetition of historical engineering or operational errors, saving time and capital while institutionalizing technical knowledge within the development team.

X

What: Ensures the alignment of the ORD with the requirements of ORA

How: Audits the engineering specifications detailed in the ORD against the overarching operational, asset management, and maintenance guidelines mandated by the organization's asset owners.

Why: To guarantee that the constructed asset can actually be efficiently operated and maintained by the internal operations team throughout its commercial lifespan.

X

What: Creates the Scope of Work (SOW) for outsourced services aligned with the context and needs of the project.

How: Drafts clear, legally tight technical scope documents for third-party consultants and contractors, defining boundary limits, specific deliverables, and performance milestones.

Why: To eliminate contractual ambiguity, ensuring outsourced vendors deliver exactly what the project requires while keeping procurement boundaries clear to prevent budget drift.

X

What: Conducts site due diligence to identify the suitability of the project site and potential risks in developing and implementing the project.

How: Coordinates physical and desktop site surveys, assessing topography, soil stability, flood risks, land zoning, and physical proximity to roads and existing power lines.

Why: To confirm the project is physically viable and to uncover hidden engineering or logistics risks before committing significant capital to the site.

X

What: Conducts a preliminary System Impact Study (SIS) with the Power Systems Planning team.

How: Models the generation or storage asset against the target transmission grid network to simulate power flows, short-circuit levels, and voltage stability at the proposed tapping point.

Why: To determine early on if the local grid can absorb the asset's capacity, identifying potential congestion or expensive grid upgrade requirements that could sink the project's economics.

X

What: Creates the technical documents to comply with the requirements of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) (e.g., Technical Assessment, System Impact Study, Facility Study, etc.).

How: Compiles project performance data and works with certified grid modeling specialists to package engineering studies that comply exactly with the parameters of the Philippine Grid Code.

Why: To progress through the official NGCP grid connection queue, moving the asset systematically toward securing an approved Interconnection Agreement.

X

What: Creates the technical documents to comply with the requirements of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) (e.g., Point-to-Point Permit, Certificate of Compliance, etc.).

How: Drafts engineering justifications and technical submittals demonstrating that dedicated connection assets (Point-to-Point lines) and the plant itself meet national safety and economic regulations.

Why: To secure the explicit legal rights necessary to build dedicated lines and legally sell power into the market once the asset goes live.

X

What: Creates the technical documents to comply with the requirements of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) (e.g., Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental Compliance Certificate, etc.).

How: Feeds raw technical design data, emission profiles, and environmental footprints for EMB review.

Why: To secure the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), ensuring the project complies with environmental laws and protects the company from regulatory shutdowns or fines.

X

What: Reviews and evaluates the outcome of the NGCP Studies (Technical Assessment, System Impact Study, and Facility Study) and implements the necessary or required recommendations.

How: Analyzes final grid study reports from NGCP to identify mandated upgrades, such as, but not limited to, specialized transformers or substation expansions, and...