2026 Shultz Energy Fellowships: California Public Utilities Commission, Energy Division
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.
The fellowships run from Monday, June 22 to Friday, August 28, 2026.
Organization/Agency mission or role in state government
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies, in addition to authorizing video franchises.
The CPUC's five Governor-appointed Commissioners, as well as its staff, are dedicated to ensuring that consumers have safe, reliable utility service at reasonable rates, protecting against fraud, and promoting the health of California's economy.
Assignment
The Energy Division provides technical support to the Commissioners and their offices, and the Administrative Law Judges. The division drafts resolutions for formal consideration by the Commission. Resolutions generally result from informal utility requests called Advice Letters, which are submitted by utilities to request rate and tariff adjustments.
The Shultz Fellow assigned to the Energy Division will identify opportunities to improve the CPUC’s Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) process, with a focus on resource-to-busbar mapping and how it factors in emerging trends (e.g., in resource developer commercial interest; data center growth).
Potential Mentor
- Neil Raffan, Program & Project Supervisor - IRP Transmission & Interconnection
Work Environment
This is a hybrid opportunity.
- Engineering with policy development aspiration, or vice versa
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' 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.
