2026 Shultz Energy Fellowships: California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Market Analysis and Forecasting

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, and Utah during the summer. 

You will be one of three Shultz Energy Fellows (two grad, one undergrad) at CAISO. 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. The ISO operates a competitive wholesale energy market that promotes lower costs and renewable resources, as well as overseeing transmission planning to maximize efficiency and reliability.

Potential Projects

The California ISO is looking to host two students who are passionate about shaping the future of the California ISO’s electricity market through engineering and economic analysis. To be successful, the students should have strong data science skills, including R/Phyton programming skills, as well as background in economics and optimization. 

Project topics include those listed below.

Project 1: Economic efficiency  of the Extended Day-Ahead Market

This project will expose the fellow to key knowledge areas including economics, power systems, optimization, and data analytics, as applied to the ISO’s day-ahead market. The fellow will be required to learn CAISO’s market data structure, develop key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics using R or Python, create visualization tools such as dashboards, and perform descriptive analytics on market functions to interpret and rationalize results.

On May 1, 2026, the ISO’s day-ahead market will be extended to include other balancing areas. This milestone represents the culmination of a multi-year effort, progressing from concept to full implementation. The effort includes the introduction of a new market product designed to procure ramping capacity to manage uncertainty arising from variability in demand, as well as wind and solar generation.

As part of ongoing activities to assess market performance and monitor efficiency, this project will focus on analyzing and evaluating the economic efficiency of the newly implemented extended day-ahead market across all functional components. These components include market products such as energy, reliability services, imbalance reserves, and greenhouse gas compliance; the formation of clearing prices; congestion revenue allocation; wholesale market costs; and the management of inverter-based resources such as batteries.

Project 2: Assessment of economic benefits of the Extended Day-Ahead Market

The project will expose the fellow to the operations and functions of the day-ahead market, as well as to the fundamentals and data structures of the ISO’s markets. The fellow will be required to learn the operation of the day-ahead market, become familiar with the ISO’s market data structure, understand the functions of the day-ahead market software and assess the accuracy of economic benefit calculations under various conditions and scenarios.

Based on the proven success of the real-time imbalance market, which has generated over $8 billion in benefits, the expansion of the day-ahead market to a wider footprint is expected to deliver both economic and operational benefits to participating entities. The ISO, in partnership with future participating entities, is finalizing a numerical methodology to estimate the gross economic benefits of the extended day-ahead market. These benefits will be calculated for each participating entity and for each operating trading date.

This project will build upon the preliminary methodology to assess its ability to capture all relevant market scenarios and components, and to identify any necessary enhancements based on actual operational data once the extended day-ahead market is in operation.

Work Environment

• Remote/Hybrid: The ISO invites the Shultz Fellow to work remotely, with in person event attendance (agreed upon in advance). 

Potential Mentor

• Guillermo Bautista Alderete, PhD, Director, Market Analysis and Forecasting