Data infrastructure for California's energy and climate system
Role: Lead Software Engineer (senior individual contributor) · 2019–2022
- statewide reporting programs (petroleum + fuels/energy)
- 2
- consumer savings from California's appliance-efficiency standards (per CEC)
- $14.7B/yr
- cloud migration she helped drive to consensus
- AWS
- feeds California's biennial energy policy report
- IEPR
Before her leadership work, Chelsea spent three years as Lead Software Engineer at the California Energy Commission, the state agency in charge of energy policy, planning, and forecasting. As a senior individual contributor, she designed and shipped the systems that collect the data California relies on to understand its own energy supply and demand. This is the reporting layer underneath the state's climate and energy decisions.
The Data Submission Portal
Chelsea designed and built the CEC Data Submission Portal on AWS. It is the front door regulated parties use to report to the state. It covers PIIRA petroleum industry reporting and QFER fuel and energy reporting, the data behind California's energy-demand forecasts and the Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR), the state's core energy planning document. The portal was later extended to handle SB 379 residential solar-permit reporting, which supports the state's rooftop-solar buildout.
- PIIRA petroleum industry reporting, the data behind California's view of its fuel supply
- QFER fuel and energy reporting, which feeds statewide energy-demand forecasts
- SB 379 residential solar-permit reporting, added as the platform grew with state policy
MAEDbS: the system of record for appliance efficiency
Chelsea also maintained MAEDbS, the statewide system of record for California's Title 20 appliance-efficiency program. Manufacturers use it to certify that their products meet the state's energy-efficiency standards before they can be sold in California. By the Energy Commission's own estimate, those standards save consumers about $14.7 billion a year. That savings depends on the certification data being accurate and available.
ETL, dashboards, and the move to the cloud
Beyond the reporting systems, Chelsea built the ETL pipelines and policy dashboards that turn raw submissions into something analysts and policymakers can use. She also helped build the consensus to move the agency's systems to the cloud. It is the kind of unglamorous platform decision that nobody celebrates and that quietly determines whether public infrastructure can keep up with what is asked of it.
Why this matters now
Climate and energy work runs on data. Forecasts, emissions, supply, demand: each is only as good as the systems that collect and standardize the reporting underneath it. This is the domain Chelsea most wants to return to. The instincts she brought to California's energy reporting, accurate data, open standards, resilient cloud infrastructure, and decisions a regulator can defend, are what the energy transition needs from the engineers who build its plumbing.