2024 Shultz Energy Fellowships: City of Palo Alto Utilities — The Karl Knapp Energy Fellow in City Government
Regional-, state-, and city-level efforts are essential in our fight against climate change, especially in the field of energy. Stanford University is committed to helping by integrating its students into energy and climate ecosystems in the West through the Shultz Energy Fellowships program, an energy-related summer fellowship program for undergraduate and graduate students.
Named in honor of former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, one of the most widely admired American public servants of the past half-century, the program offers a suite of paid, energy-related public service fellowships for Stanford students in California, Colorado, Utah, and Hawai'i during the summer.
The fellowships run from Monday, June 24, 2024 to Friday, August 30, 2024.
City of Palo Alto — The Karl Knapp Energy Fellow in City Government:
Karl Knapp worked for the City of Palo Alto Utilities from 2001 to 2008 as a Senior Resource Planner. The Karl Knapp Energy Fellow in City Government, started in 2019, is a government fellowship opportunity Stanford University offers as part of the Shultz Energy Fellowships program in memory of Karl.
The City of Palo Alto has provided a full range of utility services (electric, gas, water, and sewer) for over 100 years, and is one of the only publicly owned gas utilities in the State of California. The City has ambitious sustainability goals, as embodied in its Sustainability and Climate Action Plan. Palo Alto has been a leader in Green Building and has been recognized for its Energy Reach Codes. Its Utilities Department has been on the forefront of sustainability, with 100% carbon neutral electric and gas portfolio goals and an award-winning solar program. CPAU is working to address long term business planning challenges related to sustainability and the long-term need to maintain safety, reliability, and reasonable rates.
Fellows working with the City of Palo Alto in 2023 will work in the Utilities Department, Resource Management Division. Resource Management is a group of analysts and program managers responsible for managing the City’s electricity, natural gas, and water supply portfolios, financial forecasting and developing customer retail rates, and developing and implementing customer programs related to energy and water efficiency, solar energy, electric vehicles, and building decarbonization.
The specific projects assigned will depend on the skills, abilities, and interests of the candidate and the needs of the City. The project for the summer of 2024 will be the following:
- Building and/or modifying an hourly model for the electricity supply of existing and potential resources to estimate financial, energy, and carbon exposure on an hourly basis for the next 2-3 years.
CPAU anticipates staff will have a flexible hybrid work policy for summer 2024. If this is the case, the fellow will have the option to work fully in-person, partially remote, or fully remote, with partial in-person work (2 days a week) highly encouraged.
2023 Fellow:
- Timmy Hall, MS ’23 Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Learn about Timmy's experience at CPAU:
All Shultz fellows must be enrolled in the spring quarter before their fellowship.
All Shultz fellows must take a one-unit spring workshop course, 'Energy Policy in California and the West' taught by Professor Bruce Cain and Visiting Fellow Felicia Marcus that will provide an in-depth analysis of the role of California state agencies, the Western Interstate Energy Board, and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council in driving energy policy development, technology innovation, and market structures. Course number is CEE 263G / POLISCI 73 / PUBLPOL 73 / ENERGY 73. Schedule: Wednesdays from 9:30 am - 10:20 am (Spilker 143 Videoconference Room).
This opportunity is open to graduate students. Interested undergraduate students can apply for the Shultz Energy Fellowships program via SIG.
