DOE Awards Smart Grid Training Funds

By: Marty Niland, Published: 04/08/10 12:47pm

The Department of Energy has selected 54 smart grid workforce training programs to receive nearly $100 million in stimulus grants.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today which programs will receive the money, which will leverage more than $95 million in funding from community colleges, universities, utilities and manufacturers to develop and implement training programs.

It will pay to train about 30,000 Americans to modernize the nation’s electrical grid and implement smart grid technologies in communities across the country.

Chu made the announcement at a Pepco engineering and service center in Rockville, Md., that is slated to get $4.4 million to train 700 new and existing employees.

The training involves electricians, line workers, technicians, system operators, power system engineers, cyber security specialists and transmission planners. They'll receive training on the transmission and distribution systems as well as new intelligent grid systems, such as smart meters, phasor measurement sensors and advanced communication networks.

See a complete listing of the selected projects here.