Intern Position :

The Case to Develop a Demand-Side Energy Planning and Conservation Internship

As the UT explores new methods of energy conservation and demand planning, there are many reasons to bring an intern on board and they are included:

• With an expanding conservation program, there will be an increase in the work needing to be done, an intern could help accomplish all the goals we will lay forth – which will include:
  
• Collaborating with all interested parties across the campus
  
• Locating and acquiring extra funding
  
• Collecting data
  
• Analyzing data for decision making
  
• Communicating findings with the appropriate people
• Implementing change
• An intern brings a fresh perspective and a student’s inquiring nature that will allow the team to identify opportunities that had previously been overlooked, as well as, problems with the current status quo.
• A student intern will be able to represent the students’ voice, views and perspective to the decision making of the power plant team With consideration of the above factors, an internship will help develop the energy conservation program more holistically as it will involve the student voice. Additionally, it will enable more progress to be made in a shorter amount of time as an intern will invest manpower and time to the program.

The job responsibilities, as listed above will allow both DSEMC and the student to benefit from
the internship, because the student will gain an invaluable hands-on education while making a tangible difference at The University of Texas as a whole.

Intern Position Description:

1. Advance an internal DSEMC (Demand Side Energy Management Conservation) Program budget tracking tool with Excel in a practical format to mirror department results for monthly presentation to upper management. We need at this stage to track multimillion dollar budget
   
2. Advance “preliminary” University Energy Policy & University Operating Energy Standard from consensus documentation.
3. Outreach: From a student perspective involved in university sustainability, identify the numerous non-networked sustainable organizations; approx number of members; pertinent interests; etc to determine how this physical asset can be optimized in the long run for this department.
4. Work on procurement process to incorporate Energy Star purchases for UT.
5. Establish prerequisites and intern duties for your future successor interns for sustainable energy and water conservation.students.
6. Analyze data and peruse potential energy & water conservation projects for the next cycle.
7. Assist in developing a model for University Energy & Water Sustainability.

contact:
Al Lewandowski
The University of Texas at Austin
Facilities Department
DSEMC University Energy Manager
512-471-5766 office