Portland General Electric (PGE) provides safe and reliable electricity to an area with over 1.9 million residents. They are committed to clean energy and are rapidly deploying new renewable energy sources to move toward 100% fossil-free electricity by 2040. They have a primary focus on their customers, who depend on PGE to power their homes, their businesses, and their lives. As a critical service provider, PGE has a responsibility to deliver a quality, reliable product.
The grid is experiencing more and more intermittent renewable energy resources like wind and solar, and we need to develop new ways of storing that energy for when it is most needed, or else find new ways to shift consumer's behavior for when they demand electricity. Working with PGE's Distributed Resource Planning team, you will research technology options (like lithium-ion batteries, solar smart inverters, and electric vehicles) and study potential applications in the field. The project will culminate in developing a clean energy roadmap and implementation plan for the students' school or selected home or business of their choice.
Student intern will research industry technology trends by reading academic journal articles and industry publications; attend virtual sessions to connect with and network with PGE staff and other industry participants as available (e.g., University students, entrepreneurs, US Department of Energy National Laboratory scientists); study at least one renewable energy and one consumer-behavior technology in semi self-directed manner; attend weekly in-person team meeting with PGE distributed resource planning team; use Microsoft Excel to calculate energy impacts from different renewable energy systems, or energy conservation strategies, including greenhouse gas impacts, cost impacts, and kilowatt-hour impacts; (if applicable) explore data analysis and visualization strategies in either Python or R packages.
By the end of the summer the intern will:
- Develop a firm understanding of how energy is produced, transmitted, and distributed to end-use customers.
- Understand the environmental impacts of fossil fuel generation.
- Be able to articulate challenges associated with moving the US electric grid to 100% renewable energy.
- Have completed one final Microsoft Powerpoint presentation with a plan or roadmap for clean energy implementation at the student's school, or a home or business of their choosing.
- Developed an appreciation for the energy sector as a potential career field.
- Be excited about STEM!
The mentor views internships as a place for co-creation and that mentor and mentee have something to learn from one another, something to teach the other. He also recognizes that there are multiple types of intelligence. These considerations make his mentorship style less about delivering subject-matter knowledge (though the selected intern certainly will cover that ground!) and more about exploring the realm of inquiry within a discipline. The mentor often lets student's questions guide the conversation, rather than having pre-ordained destinations. The mentor believes that often, our minds will not grasp onto a concept if we cannot find useful analogies in our day-to-day experience, or something in our storehouse of knowledge to compare it to. Therefore, it is just as important for the mentor to understand what the intern’s background is, and what their interests are, as the other way around. He says, "at the end of the day I just want to have FUN! I think the topic of energy and sustainability is endlessly fascinating (and also just so happens to be critical to the health of our planet!), and so my main approach is to make the material accessible, relatable, but always with the lens of ‘are we having fun yet?’"
We strongly encourage students to apply who are from one or more systemically and historically excluded group, including but not limited to, non-cis-gendered students, girls, BIPOC, first-generation college bound students, low-income/low-resourced students, students with disabilities, who are neurodivergent, and those who speak a primary language other than English.
This internship will be hybrid, with both virtual and in-person components, as permitted by Federal/State/Local/PGE guidelines. To reduce the risks of coronavirus exposure, mentors and interns will act in accordance with applicable COVID guidelines and procedures. Selected applicants will be required to review and sign a waiver agreement.
If you have any questions about the application, website technical issues and/or this position description, please contact Saturday Academy at ase@saturdayacademy.org. Do not contact the mentor directly. Contacting the mentor directly is grounds for disqualification of your ASE application.
Should be comfortable with numbers, or at least willing to try! Knowledge of Microsoft word and Microsoft Excel; good written communication skills; familiarity with web research.