Greener, Bigger and More Valuable in Energy Transition and the Path of Life

In early 2000, RWE launched a great number of initiatives to transition from their conventional identity into one that sparks innovation and advancement. Aside from the overarching conglomerate net-zero goals of 2040, RWE endeavor to invest over 1.6 trillion TWD into global offshore and onshore wind, solar, batteries and storage, and the establishment of the hydrogen energy supply chain (HESC).

Monica Liu, Country Manager of RWE Renewables Taiwan

By Xin-En Wu

　　"Greener, Bigger, More Valuable" - these are the driving ethos for Germany's century old energy utility company, RWE AG(RWE). The group has set these ethos as their guiding star for the current decade, up to 2030, as they fulfill their commitment and vision. RWE has seen over 120 years of success, and is Germany's largest electricity utility company, with extremely robust utility supply chain management experience. RWE Renewables, the newest subsidiary of RWE AG, stems from the core principles of its parent organization, inheriting the core values of sustainability as its core mission in the process of developing offshore wind farms. RWE Renewables embodies the best practices and experience of RWE AG, striving to provide holistic and highly actionable approaches to all of its development projects. Upon setting foot in Taiwan in 2018, RWE Renewables has had an intense focus on sustainable management and operations and is dedicated to creating and nurturing synergies across all of its endeavors in Taiwan, including both offshore wind farm development and the nurturing of Taiwan's local talent and industries, as well as investing heavily into localized collaborations.

　　With an educational background in construction management and civil engineering, RWE Renewables' Taiwan Country Manager, Monica Liu, happened across the energy industry early on in her career path and was soon indoctrinated into the field of wind energy. Throughout the years of pioneering countless energy development projects, Monica has come to realize and deeply appreciate the necessity for equality as an innate aspect of the industry. "Way back when I was just getting ready to enter university, we had to make up our minds about the career paths and professions we would be choosing for the rest of our lives,". With that, and with the influence of conventional Asian family expectations of science and technology-related fields providing better career prospects, Monica chose to opt into the field of construction management which was also in alignment with the emerging global trends that emphasized infrastructure development at that time.

　　2008 was the year when the financial crisis hit, also known to most as the subprime mortgage crisis, and was also the year Monica graduated from the University of Toronto with a Masters degree in Civil Engineering. Even with a distinguished diploma from a prestigious university, 2008 couldn't have been a worse time for graduates to enter the workforce. Similar to Asian countries, Canada is also a country that pays great attention to "networking", which means professional practitioners gain access to career development information and opportunities by actively participating in formal or informal online or offline activities, building connections, and promoting themselves. In the face of a global recession, while also being fresh out of a graduate program and without any connections or network to fall back on, Monica faced the harsh reality of unemployment.

　　Canada, much like many Asian countries, values one's network. Recalling the overwhelming setback and challenge of being unemployed despite having pristine credentials, Monica shares her memories of the dark times she had to soldier through, "I still remember, clear as day, how I tried sending my resume to every single engineering company. What made matters worse, my scholarship ended the moment I graduated and in order to make ends meet, I had to settle for working as a sales assistant in Chinatown. To say that circumstances were derelict would be an absolute understatement, though looking back now, those days do make for an interesting life story to tell."

Impregnable circumstances create the most cherished experiences

　　Fortunately, the chaos and anxiety of the days working part-time only lasted briefly, as Monica received her first offer at a company that required her hard-earned expertise in construction and engineering management. In this two-person company that only consisted of herself and her employer, Monica gradually regained her footing and composure at this small consultancy as a jack-of-all-trades, assuming the roles of receptionist, secretary, admin and civil engineer simultaneously. Three short months later, Monica found employment at another company as a CAD designer, and it was here that Monica started to realize the significance of nurturing her own network. This was the catalyst Monica needed, as it spurred Monica to proactively establish and build her connections with people inside and beyond her area of expertise. Before long, Monica was offered an opportunity to join the then-biggest American engineering, construction, and project management company, Bechtel, as Project Coordinator. Bechtel, the fossil fuel infrastructure contractor, was Monica's third job after graduation. "For someone with absolutely no relevant professional experience to be granted the opportunity to work for such a massive corporation was truly a once in a lifetime blessing. You could most definitely say that I was completely over the moon"

　　Just as Monica was about to pull out all the stops and officially embark on this new chapter in life, the retributions of the global financial crisis reared its ugly head again, rendering Bechtel's refinery project redundant, and before long causing Bechtel to shut down its entire Canadian operations. Monica took yet another crippling blow and found herself without a job again. Monica openly shared, "At first, when I was just laid off, I was actually quite happy, naively thinking that I could receive 3 months of severance compensation and wouldn't have to commute three hours to and from work every day. Call it what you will, perhaps the bliss of youthful ignorance? Never could I have anticipated that after three months of unemployment, would the barriers of re-entering the workforce be so daunting, even more so than when I first graduated in the midst of a global recession."

　　One fundamental reason why her job hunt was so much more challenging than the first time, was surprising because she had started to develop her own network. As strange as it might sound, it actually makes sense, seeing that although Monica had started to nurture the connections in her network, she had made a critical mistake; all of her connections, especially more senior connections, all worked in the same field as her. Monica jokingly remarked that if people are given crystal balls that could tell them exactly what life would be like in three to five years' time, people would've at least been able to feel a bit more at ease. However, that's never the case, and the sense of uncertainty is like a plague that robs you of any notion of peace. "I once told a group of soon-to-be university graduates that those times of turmoil will turn out to be times that you cherish for the rest of your life. However painful you may feel in the moment, when you look back at those dark times and you realize how fortunate you were to have experienced all that right in the early years of your career, you start to appreciate the amount of tenacity those experiences granted you. There will always be fortunate ones that seem to just have everything laid out before them without ever having to experience the tumultuous confusion in order to reach those lofty, coveted positions. However, if that were truly the case, when a sudden change jolts you out of your comfort zone and brings you crashing down to ground level, the pain is exponentially more severe. With experience comes insight, with insight comes compassion and empathy, and when we approach or are approached by people at different ages and from all walks of life, we become much more amicable and able to connect much deeper. This, is another form of wealth."

　　In 2010, in another chance encounter, Monica was presented with the opportunity to join Northland Power Inc.

Enter Northland

　　Ever since she was a student, Monica has always remained captivated by striking a balance between developing expertise and professionalism in her field of work and the mysteries of advancing through life. How could a person be able to maintain their focus and dedication toward career advancement while continuously working on self-improvement and personal growth? "I've always valued the process of learning through experience and finding solid solutions to solve the root cause of problems, all while partaking in the achievement of milestones up until the completion of a cycle and/or a project. It is that final sense of accomplishment that drives me"

　　Northland, having already been in the emerging energies market for over twenty or so years upon Monica's onboarding, was still largely one-dimensional in terms of their energy infrastructure development, focusing solely on natural gas-related projects. Moreover, the company's management methodologies and overall structure of their organization had yet to evolve into the system that today's independent international energy developers have in place in managing their development portfolios and business operations. Given the circumstances, Monica's extensive experience in various business disciplines propelled and enabled her to partake in cross-functional, collaborative projects at a much more in-depth level, providing her ample opportunities to fully comprehend the multi-faceted stages of an assortment of projects which, in turn, also allowed Monica to gain unique insights and perspectives, therefore bringing her the clairvoyance to be able to connect the dots across a much broader spectrum. Also, owing to the fact that the standards, SOPs, and a comprehensive long-term career development plan of the personnel were still in development, many best practices and learning experiences stemming from the previous projects had to be manually uncovered and learned each time there was a new project. This posed a challenge but also an opportunity for overall project management as well as personnel development.

　　Over the 12 years, Monica was at Northland, her horizons expanded at an exponential rate with every project she came across, experiencing and absorbing every shred of knowledge and technical expertise that each challenge threw at her. From an individual project specialist to lead project engineer, then to project manager, and eventually to project director, every level of ascension signified more depth of scope and breadth of scale that Monica had to assimilate and integrate, including but not limited to electricity management systems, electricity restrictions and regulations from global to market-specific perspectives, allocation and transmission of electricity, power plant construction, operation and maintenance, energy efficiency and demand. In addition to accumulating knowledge and experience, proficiency with certain skill sets was just as compulsory, most notably expertise in project management (PMP). The one underlying factor that propelled Monica to new heights with every encounter, was how she was able to impeccably integrate experiences, knowledge, and expertise across all different areas of her work seamlessly, enabling her to make precise and accurate decisions at every juncture.

Proliferated growth and improvement, spurred by urgency

　　Monica is deeply grateful for all the lessons and learnings that Northland gave her, showing appreciation for the amount of growth and the unique career path she was blessed with at every opportunity she has.

　　In the first few years of joining Northland, Monica traversed every part of Ontario, from flying to driving, all the way to remote locations, hundreds of kilometers away from civilization, just to visit project sites. Monica shares a vivid memory of one such trip, "There's one memory in particular that stands out. It was in 2012 and there was a project in the northernmost tip of Ontario, where winter temperature dropped well below -40 ° C. I had to take a plane and then take the only highway, Highway 11, to a faraway and isolated town that only consisted of three motels, a public library, a post office, four restaurants and a train station. Going any further North would mean entering the Arctic Circle, just to put things into perspective. Whenever it snowed there, the roads would literally disappear, so driving was actually quite risky, given the amount of wildlife that could wander onto the roads at any time." Only in her twenties, Monica had driven her pickup truck countless times between the secluded town and the nearest airport over the course of the two years the project was live

　　The year 2017 was a pivotal point in Monica's career. That year, Monica accepted Northland's expatriate assignment to Taipei to lead the development of offshore wind farms. Unsure of whether to call it coincidence or destiny, Monica confides, "I've always maintained myself as a ‘flexible' employee, and have always dove, headfirst, into any project or work that the company assigned me because they're all opportunities to learn and continue growing. The five supervisors I've been fortunate enough to work with were all highly supportive and appreciative of me and my work ethic."

　　Building upon the trust and seniority over the years at the company, Monica was seen as the perfect candidate to lead the expansion initiatives in Taiwan. Upon establishing Northland's Taiwan branch, the reality of the lack of accessibility to resources and support that was so readily available at headquarters sank in swiftly as Monica found herself wearing many different hats once more, just as she had in the early years of her career, and with it, the pressure and expectations that came along with each role she was responsible for started to pile. Building from scratch, Monica worked with a small team of select elites, shouldering the weight of driving multiple projects, while also managing scopes of work that far beyond the capabilities of even the most astute and experienced project directors. On top of navigating the uncertainty of developing projects and the technicalities of pioneering a virgin landscape, Monica had to juggle a multitude of operational roles, including admin, HR, government relations, and public relations.

　　Gradually, as the team's structure became more robust, another problem came into play; cultural differences. This emphasized the significance of establishing interpersonal relations and work dynamics, unifying operating procedures, and facilitating team alignment and consensus, all of which became a quintessential part of the day-to-day for Monica. Removing cultural barriers, balancing the relations and dynamics between foreign expats and local hires, and fostering a trusting and collaborative company culture were completely new facets of work that Monica had never before been required to even give a second thought about, but now her time and focus was drawn away, having to listen and understand the thoughts and opinions of every team member, then reassuming her role as Northland's Taiwan branch leader and key decision maker to make the final call and verdict from a holistic and all-inclusive position. In hindsight, Monica was again grateful for the opportunities to be in a position that allowed her to hone and elevate her discernment while learning to appreciate values and perspectives from other, previously unfamiliar, areas of business. As her role grew and expanded, the level of accountability and responsibility grew, ultimately preparing Monica for an entirely new threshold in her professional life, and allowing her to trailblaze a career path that she could truly call her own.

Striking balance between career and family

　　As the lead project director of such scale and scope, balancing between career and family is a delicate and convoluted matter. With countless meetings to attend on a daily basis and with many days completely overtaken by meetings, on top of internal discussions and an endless barrage of events and activities, even having a day or two to her own discretion was already a rarity. "I will forever be grateful for my family and the unwavering support they've always shown me. Although my time was forever strapped by the 80/20 rule, with only the latter being the time I could spare for family, I would always make sure that I did everything I could to pick up my two daughters from kindergarten and have dinner together, as a family. Also, any weekends where business trips weren't vying for my time, I would prioritize those precious times for my husband and my daughters" said Monica. To her, family is the foundational support for all that she is able to do, motivating her to persist and endure.

　　Monica thinks back to 2014, shortly after her eldest daughter was born, the company wanted her to return to her post as soon as she could to oversee a live project. Monica chose to end her maternity leave earlier than scheduled, returning to ground zero as project manager, only to find that the project was in shambles. Suppliers were on the verge of bankruptcy, substation sites faced serious quality issues, constructions were halted due to government inspections surrounding environmental pollution matters, late payments from contractors, and so on and so forth. At the time Monica was just a newly appointed project manager have to handle and face such chaos. Monica adds, "The first time I ever went on site to meet and discuss solutions, I distinctly remember that I was the only woman in a meeting room of 20 or so people."

　　Asians are, by nature, change-adverse, and being in the presence of so many contractors, the majority of which all individually boasted over thirty years of industry experience, Monica felt extremely exposed and depreciated as every single person glared and viewed her with eyes of intense scrutiny and distrust. However, even despite the fierce skepticism, Monica stood her ground by maintaining her composure with solid contractual obligations as her foundations and fueled by her unrelenting nature and work ethic, she negotiated firmly, knowing precisely when to be forceful, as well as when to show compassion and humility. "At that time, I was adamant about driving three hours to the construction site just to attend those meetings, setting the bar for everyone to meet as we reinforced the timeliness of our overall project with everyone who contributed to its completion. In the event that I knew I would have to spend a night there, I would bring my newborn baby, who had not even yet been weaned, on-site as well. I spared no effort in setting strict deadlines and held myself, as well as everyone involved fully accountable for their contributions. In doing so, everyone knew exactly their roles and what needed to happen, and when conflicts broke out, they were quickly resolved. At the end of the day, the project was completed on time and to the exact standards that we upheld throughout the entire process".

Revolutionize RWE

　　From Northland to RWE Renewables, from Canada to Taiwan, overall the experience she's had, Monica has come to realize a few undeniable truths. While development industries mainly rely on the technology and experience of developers, especially when it comes to large-scale and complex projects, Monica agrees with the comment that, "when circumstances and conditions are equal, RWE emphasizes and puts even more value on 'people' and what they are able to bring to the table. RWE's values are exemplified in their commitment to developing and investing in their most valuable asset, their workforce. It comes through as 'I reap what I sow, I cultivate the talent that work for us'. RWE's established and longstanding development over the past century has given RWE the unique vantage and adequate resources to nurture, lead and cultivate their human capital, creating a truly comprehensive and holistic organizational infrastructure."

　　Throughout the past 120 years, RWE has always remained cognizant that we need to acclimatize and adapt to the changing times. Considering the technological breakthroughs and upcoming trends revolving around the offshore wind industry, RWE Renewables places our faith in the potential of floating offshore wind turbines, and seeks to have fully operational floating wind farms at 1 GW capacity before 2030. In terms of technological developments, RWE has an encyclopedic grasp of the global oceanic landscape and the complexity of the changing climate, therefore deployed floating wind demo projects with diverse integral technologies across Norway, America, and Spain. "Taiwan needs a company like RWE which possesses unrivaled competency and capabilities, so, why not?" says Monica

　　The second goal concentrates on RWE's development and technology advancements in Phase 3, including the current three projects in Taichung and two in Hsinchu, with the focus of Taichung being placed on fixed-type wind farms, whereas Hsinchu's projects are designated for floating offshore wind. RWE's innovation is dedicated towards a number of initiatives, including the research and development of green hydrogen technology, and innovating recyclable wind blades in a joint R&D program with SGRE. RWE AG is devoted to being the foremost entity in the overall energy industry, providing the liberty to pioneer in ways that are most beneficial to all. This vantage point allows RWE to bring its experiences and expertise to Taiwan, contribute to Taiwan's energy transition, and enable Taiwan to be recognized as a leading country in this energy race.

　　The third goal revolves around what Monica mentioned "cultivating people". As she progressively realizes the changing dynamics of Taiwan's overall professional and workplace cultures, discussions surrounding these issues will need to be addressed by those in managerial roles in this space. During the interview, Monica shared some amiable insights on the hardships and challenges a manager needs to face. When Monica was in her twenties, especially seeing that she had experience in both North American and Taiwanese conventional industries, there is one factor where both geographies are highly reminiscent of each other. Employees in each geography have very limited self-awareness and capacity to express their thoughts and opinions, with the vast majority of employees just working hard to meet their supervisors' orders. As a project director who's managed hundreds, if not thousands of team members, she or he never had to and never had the desire to learn about each and every one of the staff.

　　Compared to the modern workplace, employees need to feel a sense of recognition. The rising popularity and emphasis on work-life balance is also a trend that indicates employee demands need to be met. Monica excitedly shared one other revelation she's had since joining RWE, the Career Cultivation Initiative, where the many operations and professional fields in RWE AG emphasize there is a very clear mentor-mentee work relation, with senior, experienced teams shadowing junior teams in their work, guiding and supporting the less experienced team members. When viewed in retrospect with RWE's global footprint, RWE provides all its staff with mobility options, opening doorways to job opportunities to different countries and various markets. RWE even encourages and inquires about the staff's willingness to transfer internally to different departments and geographies.

Women in the workplace: Standing up for yourself

　　One of the most common questions Monica is often asked about, is the question of gender equality in the workplace, and whether or not roles in science and technology intensive industries are still primarily male-oriented. As a living, breathing example herself, Monica explains that though it may be true that women would most probably have to exert twice or three times more effort than men, the returns that one sees on oneself because of the amount of work that's required, often expedites a women's career path much more than men as well. Consistency and perseverance are the keys that lead you toward success. "Think about large-scale, industrial projects, from a different perspective. I have always considered women to harbor innate advantages, like tenacity, resilience, flexibility, fortitude, higher stress tolerance levels, keen observation capabilities, coordination skills, communication, and socializing skills. As a matter of fact, these characteristics allow women to lead discussions back on track and help the collective focus on the true, root cause of the problems at hand instead of complicating the focus."

Making the most of every opportunity: Go all in

　　In 2020, when RWE and E.ON SE (a European electric utility company based in Essen, Germany) completed their asset swap, the entity became the second-largest renewable energy developer in the world. Concurrently, this meant that RWE had already caught onto the global trends of energy transition and understood that assets and corporate entity consolidations would serve a greater purpose if done sooner rather than later. Unbeknownst to most people, RWE holds an extensive track record of hitting many milestones in offshore wind developments, including the UK's first commercially operational wind farm, the Scroby Sands project, in 2004 and the first ever recyclable wind blade demonstration wind farm in the North Sea, Kaskasi Offshore Wind Farm, in 2021.

　　Monica has been dedicated to development projects over the last 12 years. She openly confides that you need to be prepared to face the good, the bad, and the uncertainty when executing. When you bask in the glory of success, you know you're also facing the uncertainty and ambiguity that comes with it. Some development projects work out, and some just don't. Many people contribute to a project, however out of the ten, maybe even twenty that are started, perhaps only one is a success; that's the nature of the industry. The same with any kind of development, opportunities, and risks are but two sides of the same coin. Developers need to learn how to effectively manage their expectations. A lot of greenies that first step into the industry often have an "I need to finish what I started" kind of mentality. Having been a result-oriented person before, Monica of course won't say that results don't matter, they do. However, those that are overly focused on the results, oftentimes are frustrated by the process, the challenges and obstacles they run into, or perhaps just the sheer lack of progress. It's these pessimistic and festering thoughts that make people miss learning and growth opportunities, which is, objectively, the most valuable aspect.

　　Ever since 2021, Taiwan's offshore wind projects began to delve into deeper waters, and given the imminent announcement of the regulations for floating offshore wind farm demonstrations, the prospects of commercialization are still a bit of a ways off, especially when you take into account that all conversations related to floating offshore wind farms still only ever revolves around demonstrations. This year however, an increasing number of developers have incorporated floating technology into their development projects and have also led with this initiative in their bids for Phase 3 development. RWE on the other hand has already implemented three different kinds of technology in three distinct environments on the construction and launch of fully functional floating offshore wind farms. There is an extremely scarce number of developers who are willing to do what RWE do, 22 Cover Story actively investing capital into the demonstrative development of offshore wind farms with the intention of learning about supply chain capacities and amassing worldwide experience.

　　As pioneers in the industry, Monica and her team are often questioned, "Are you ever worried that the latecomers would copy and steal your technologies? What if they leveraged your technology and surpassed your position in the global market?" To that as Monica previously replied at the last green energy conference in Taiwan, "The more entities that join the party in the discovery and gathering of floating offshore wind technology breakthroughs and experience, the better. This means the industry is maturing, which leads to better technology and more resources available for developers. Plus, as the leading global developer, so naturally we will live up to this name, always excelling at what we do and continuing to lead the way for the advancement of the entire industry."

　　RWE's strategy of " Growing Green, Greener, Bigger and More Valuable" also corresponds to Monica's own three goals for not only herself, but represents her expectations for the whole industry and for RWE. Monica yearns to let more people know about the extent of knowledge and experience RWE has with the green transition while endeavoring to develop even more meaningful projects by providing our experiences, technology, and value. This goes the same for herself as well and can be seen throughout Monica's management philosophy and leadership style, supporting her teams to achieve sustainable transition targets, elevating the confidence of her team members, and providing every single person with the capacity and capability to fulfill their individuality and unique value.

　　According to Monica, the current wind power industry has already been developing for many years, however, there are still layers upon layers of obstacles and problems that direly need to be resolved. Some people might voice their skepticism and ask "Why weren't these issues taken into consideration when the industry was just starting?". However, no industry and, especially, no policy will ever reach a point where it feels "fully ready". The best step forward is for the industry to inform and influence decision-makers to make more holistic and comprehensive decisions as they are shown the full breadth and scope of the industry's landscape, and to let decision-makers understand and acknowledge the ever-changing state of the world, allowing them to comprehend why it is imperative that the development of the entire industry evolves in line with the world. Monica firmly believes that as long as we continue to put our best foot forward at every step we make and every opportunity we have, the end results may be different, though it will most definitely be something worth looking forward to.