2025 Shultz Energy Fellowships: California Department of Water Resources: Power Operations Management (POM)
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 (formerly Stanford Energy Internships in California and the West), 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, Hawaii, and Utah during the summer.
The fellowships run from Monday, June 23, 2025 to Friday, August 29, 2025.
Organization/Agency mission or role in state government
The State Water Project (SWP) is one of the largest water and power systems in the world. It is a water storage and delivery system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants, and pumping plants extending more than 700 miles—two-thirds the length of California. It conveys, on average, 2.4 million acre-feet of water annually to 29 long-term water contractors serving 27 million customers and 750,000 acres of farmland. The SWP consist of 21 pumping plants, 8 hydroelectric power plants (includes three pumped storage plants), 25 dams, and 34 reservoirs. This infrastructure includes USA’s highest earth-filled dam (Oroville Dam) and the largest single lift pumps (close to 2000 feet) in the USA, used to move water over the Tehachapi Mountains into southern California. Though the primary purpose of the SWP is water supply, the project produces hydroelectric power to operate pumping facilities required to move water from Northern to Southern California and also sells power when it generates a surplus of electricity.
The State Water Project – Division of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) – Power Operations Management (POM) is responsible for managing the SWP power portfolio and mitigate risks from climate change and evolving power markets while supporting grid reliability in an environmentally sustainable and regulatory compliant manner to meet SWP water deliveries. POM’s objective is to have a process in place to plan the SWP portfolio of energy resources to ensure reliable, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of water to State Water Contractors. To be able to accomplish these goals POM closely follows and adapts strategies to energy markets’ evolution and market design changes, energy price profiles, renewables development costs, reliability obligations and mandates.
Potential Projects
Conduct power planning study for SWP operational strategy: The SWP O&M- POM conducts the SWP’s Flexible Resource Study, in which the objective is to sustain reliable SWP water deliveries, and, to efficiently operate within CAISO current and future power market design constraints (price trends, ancillary services, renewable integration, capacity, etc.). This includes investigating: new operational strategies, physical changes to DWR-owned facilities, and deployment of new technologies at existing pumping and generation plants, to better position the project to participate in the State’s emerging renewable resources focused energy market. Examples of current studies include, but not limited to, energy and pumped storage modeling, and integration of battery storage and solar generation at select pumping plants.
Mentors
- Cheryl Luu, Manager Power Systems Planning and Contracts Branch
- Fawm Saefong, Manager Power Resources Unit
2024 Fellow
- Kyle (Qile) Chen, MS Civil and Environmental Engineering, Atmosphere/Energy, '25
- Learn more about Kyle's experience at DWR:
Desired Skills
- Basic knowledge of power engineering and economics
- Basic knowledge of the CAISO energy market
- Basic knowledge of California energy and climate policies and Integrated Resource Planning (IRP)
- Strong written and oral communication skills
- Quick and eager learner
- Preferred: Modeling, analytical skills using quantitative analysis and computer software, etc.
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 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm.
Please note that this opportunity is for graduate students. Interested undergraduate students can apply via SIG.
