Q&A: Kealy Day shares his transformative journey from intern to Head of Solutions.

Smart Commercial Solar is committed to investing in talented people from a young age. Our Head of Solutions, Kealy Day, is the perfect case in point. Here, he discusses how he joined the Smart family while completing his degree, and why he is excited about what his team can deliver for clients.

When did you first meet the team at Smart?

I applied for an internship back in 2017, interviewing with the Head of Operations at that time. He didn't hire me (ha). But then about six months later there was another internship in a separate team called 'intelligence'. When I came in for that there was some aptitude testing and I ended up getting the job.

Looking back from where I am now, that’s the funniest thing – that I didn't get the first internship. When I spoke to the interviewer a couple of years later about why he didn't hire me, he said it was because I seemed too relaxed. I guess it's actually a fair assessment – I have a very relaxed and nonchalant persona.

What drew you to Smart Commercial Solar in the first place?

At the networking events they were involved in, Smart always presented as being full of really sharp and intelligent people, and I agreed with their professional approach to things.

There's a tendency in renewables sometimes for people to be the loudest voice in the room, but they usually aren’t the ones involved in the day-to-day grind of actually delivering outcomes for clients. With Smart, it was clear that they walked the walk as well as talked the talk.

You finished your degree while doing the internship. Why did you decide to stay on full-time?

I really enjoyed what I was doing and felt I was making a lot of progress personally and professionally. There were so many opportunities given to me at Smart that I wouldn't have been given at other companies. They put a lot of trust into developing people and taking a chance on inexperienced minds to turn them into really experienced professionals. That was a big draw for me. I knew that as I progressed fast I would also learn a lot. That old saying is true: “From the hottest fire comes the strongest steel.”

What did your day-to-day look like during those early months in the business, and how did that develop into where you are today?

My initial role was in the analysis team. That involved lots of number-crunching and data processing and coming up with the best configurations for a certain client that would tick all the right boxes. I spent about a year there before I felt like it was time to try something new.

I then moved to the projects team, which involved really interesting engineering projects like  system designs, logistics of project delivery, electrical designs and things like that. After I went full-time, I took on additional project management responsibilities for smaller, but still complex, projects. That was really, really interesting and something of a trial by fire. You get thrown in the deep end and you learn to swim.

Tell us a bit about your current role as Head of Solutions

Head of Solutions is a newly created position. It's a technical role that covers a lot of boundaries. So I oversee all pre-sales, engineering, analysis and pricing, but I also have to be across the industry and what's out there. It’s up to me to understand all the options on the market, piece everything together and develop the best solution for the client.

What's your general process for finding solutions?

The basis for the whole process is just knowing about all of the options out there – so being aware of whenever a new product comes to market, or whenever an old product gets an update.

We then look at the heartbeat of the client – their energy usage – detailing the costs they're incurring and looking at what's available to them from the plethora of options out there. We then build a case based on what they're trying to achieve. So they might be looking for a financial solution, or they might be looking for a sustainability solution. Others just really like the technology and are happy when our options tick a box for them.

What are your plans, hopes, and ambitions for the future?

The future is about staying at the leading edge. Smart has been here for a long time in the industry, and we've been at the leading edge the whole time – now we need to stay here. We need to be the first movers on new technologies that become available.

For me personally, it's about trying to be the sharpest technically and maintaining relationships with clients. They need to be willing to take a chance on us if they want to get those blue-sky outcomes – that takes a special kind of trust from a client to sign off on a solution that's never been delivered in the industry before. They can't read a review about it; they have to trust that we've done the analysis in the background, we’ve nailed the engineering side and we’re going to make it work for them.

There are unfortunately a lot of people in this industry who promise unrealistic things from batteries and in terms of demand management. It's difficult sometimes to compete with that and convince a client that, no, we actually can't possibly deliver what they're promising you. It's not that they're doing anything different to us, it’s simply that we are being more realistic in our projection.

Being able to build trusting relationships is what will help us stay at the leading edge and push the industry further into what we can deliver to our clients.