The California Independent System Operator (ISO) manages the flow of electricity across the high-voltage, long-distance power lines that make up 80 percent of California's power grid. We safeguard the economy and well-being of 30 million Californians by "keeping the lights on" 24/7.

As the impartial grid operator, the California ISO opens access to the wholesale power market that is designed to diversify resources and lower prices. It also grants equal access to 25,865 circuit-miles of power lines and reduces barriers to diverse resources competing to bring power to customers.

The California ISO's function is often compared to that of air traffic controllers. It would be grossly unfair for air traffic controllers to represent one airline and profit from allowing that company's planes to go through before others. In the same way, the California ISO operates independently—managing the electron traffic on a power grid we do not own—making sure electricity is safely delivered to utilities and consumers on time and reliably.

Under the direction of the Customer Service and Stakeholder Affairs team members and management, the intern will work and learn in three areas of the department (Stakeholder Affairs, Customer Service and Training and Readiness).

What You Will Be Doing:

In Stakeholder Affairs the candidate will:

• Conduct tasks related to, and learn how, the ISO manages the stakeholder initiative processes related to market design, infrastructure planning, and generation interconnection.
• Will obtain a full understanding and conduct tasks related to policy development processes, including stakeholder engagement, paper proposals, stakeholder comments management, document/market notice postings, and internal/external timelines requirements.
• Assist in preparing and facilitating stakeholder meetings – Assist in preparing stakeholder initiative work plans – Upload and post incoming documents (ISO presentations and stakeholder comments) to the designated initiative web page – Organize and upload to SharePoint all necessary meeting materials – Attend and assist in the facilitation of stakeholder initiative meetings – Assist in the preparation of the ISO Symposium.  

In Customer Service the candidate will:

• Shadow a client representative learning how to provide customer care as the main ISO customer points of entry which includes phone support, issue management, e-mail and web inquiries.
  • Learn how research and analysis is done for customer issues in coordination with SME’s.
  • Tasked with researching and answering customer inquiries utilizing the existing knowledge base, business practice manuals, tariff, or any other training material already provided on the ISO website.
• Work on the customer support desk with client representative dealing with real time grid reliability concerns.
• Review knowledge articles that are written on various subjects checking for validity and proper grammar.

In Training and Readiness the candidate will:

• Assist in developing and reviewing training materials for customers.
• Become familiar with the principles of the Systematic Approach to Training (SAT),
• Participate in making presentations to stakeholders,
• Evaluate current customer information tools for completeness and accuracy.
• Be introduced to the CAISO’s philosophy of customer Readiness and the principles of preparing, informing and engaging customers in CAISO projects and initiatives.

Education:

We are looking for students currently enrolled in Political Science, Environmental Studies, Economics, Communications or related major who possess strong computer skills in MS Office Software.  Must be a junior or above and still enrolled in school December 2019.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.