2024 Shultz Energy Fellowships: Western Area Power Administration (WAPA): Wildfire Mitigation Analysis

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, Nevada, Utah, and Hawaii during the summer. 

The fellowships run from Monday, June 24, 2024 to Friday, August 30, 2024.

Office description: 

Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) is one of four power marketing administrations within the U.S. Department of Energy, whose role is to market and transmit wholesale electricity from multi-use water projects. Our service area encompasses a 15-state region of the central and western U.S. where our approximately 17,000 circuit mile transmission system carries electricity from 57 hydropower plants operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the International Boundary and Water Commission. ​ 

We wholesale this clean and carbon free power to preference customers such as Federal and state agencies, cities and towns, rural electric cooperatives, public utility districts, irrigation districts and Native American tribes. They, in turn, provide retail electric service to over 40 million of consumers in the West.  

WAPA recently finished a new strategic plan, PowerForward 2030, that was developed with our customers and employees that lays out the roadmap for safeguarding a sustainable energy future, modernizing the grid and investing in our employees.  WAPA is also working to meet the goals of Executive Order 14057 (December 8, 2021) Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability, including 100 percent zero-emission light-duty vehicle acquisitions by 2027. Through this work, we will empower the thousands of communities we serve and partner with them to secure a resilient energy future.

Potential project:

WAPA is seeking a Stanford Shultz Energy Fellow interested in learning more about the bulk electric power system operated by WAPA and to assist with evaluating potential wildfire impacts on critical infrastructure and grid reliability. Current scientific literature indicates climate-change-driven increases in wildfire activity and intensity by 2050. Increased wildfires could cause direct physical damage to utility infrastructure, or even disrupt power service along transmission lines, resulting in decreased reliability and higher costs to customers and other key stakeholders.

The candidate will assist WAPA in conducting research and analysis to quantify the potential impacts that wildfire risk might have on critical electric assets and infrastructure. The results of this analysis will be used to identify key geographic areas, the WAPA infrastructure within those critical areas needing wildfire risk mitigation, and recommend the risk techniques to utilize.

Ideal Candidate:

Candidate will assist WAPA in building upon existing wildfire work, with a particular emphasis towards identifying the transmission lines and substations that have the most exposure to damage or reliability impacts from wildfires. The candidate should possess a natural curiosity and attention to detail combined with a desire to apply critical thinking, research skills, and a variety of analysis and modeling techniques to assist WAPA on the following themes:

• Apply best available wildfire research to identify key areas of risk in WAPA’s Western U.S. regions
• Research and gather data that quantifies the financial impacts of past destructive wildfire events
• Incorporate Climate Assessment projections to identify future areas of emerging wildfire risk
• Develop modeling to risk-rank assets and provide insights on evolving mitigation techniques

The fellow would learn about the U.S. energy industry, the career paths available, build networks and relationships with industry subject matter experts as well as contribute to the economic and societal vitality for thousands of communities across WAPA’s 15 state territory.

WAPA anticipates staff will have a flexible 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 in-person work highly encouraged. WAPA has offices in the following locations:

• Folsom, California
• Billings, Montana
• Lakewood, Colorado (HQ)
• Loveland, Colorado
• Phoenix, Arizona

Potential mentor:

• Vice president, director or similar level, dependent on project area(s) selected

2023 WAPA Fellows:

• Hugo Budd '24 Civil Engineering
  • Blog post
  • Final project
• Anna Clark, B.S. Engineering Physics (Renewable Energy) 2023; M.S. Management Science & Engineering (Energy & Environment) 2024
  • Blog post
  • Final project