2026 Shultz Energy Fellowships: California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Transmission Planning and Infrastructure Development (Undergraduates)

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 Alaska, California, Colorado, and Utah during the summer. 

The fellowship runs from Monday, June 22, 2026 to Friday, August 28, 2026.

Organization/Agency mission or role in state government

The California ISO manages the flow of electricity across high-voltage, long-distance power lines that make up 80 percent of California's and a small part of Nevada's grid. The nonprofit public benefit corporation also operates a competitive wholesale energy market, and conducts transmission planning to identify grid expansion needs. 

Potential Projects

• Explore a Best Practice Strategy to Model Battery Storage Resources: Apply data analytics and programming tools to enhance the ISO's understanding of the operation and performance of battery storage resources. Explore best practices in modeling and integrating such resources into the electricity grid. The project's output will serve as input for the deterministic and stochastic modeling of the ISO system reliability assessment.
• Research Paired Solar-Battery ELCC Methodologies for RA Analysis: Conduct a literature review on Effective Load Carrying Capacity (ELCC) for standalone solar and battery resources versus in a paired configuration. Work with SME’s at CAISO to evaluate what internal data is available that can be used to modeling these parameters. Develop insights into how this modeling can be used to assign resource adequacy accreditation.
• Develop a Near Term Energy Assessment Tool to Meet NERC Standards: The CAISO is under the regulatory jurisdiction of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) who have developed a new standard set to be enforced in 2027.  The BAL-007 standard will require the CAISO to develop and document a near-term energy assessment methodology.  The project will involve working with several teams at the ISO including short-term forecasting and resource adequacy groups, with the goal of identifying potential reliability risks in the week-ahead time frame.

Work Environment

• Remote: The ISO invites the Shultz Fellow to work remotely.

Potential Mentor

• Sam Hawkes, Senior Resource Assessment and Planning Analyst
• Jared Ferguson, Lead Resource Assessment and Planning Analyst