Smart Grid Experts

The world is full of smart grid experts.  Often it seems experts fall into one of two camps – one camp’s knowledge base is a foot wide and a mile deep and the second’s knowledge base is a mile wide and a foot deep.

One of our goals is to help develop a third group of experts, ones whose knowledge is 500 feet deep across a broad spectrum of smart grid topics.  Simply put the smart grid courses we plan to offer can broaden the knowledge base of someone deeply immersed in one smart grid topic or deepen the knowledge base of someone who knows a lot about many things but who may want more information on certain topics.

Smart Grid Workforce Training: GLEEC Provides Electric Industry Training from Production, Through Delivery, to Use

This is a long post.  I want to provide an understanding of all that the Great Lakes Energy Education Center (GLEEC) has to offer.  The GLEEC and NWTC have nine on-campus and one web-based energy-related program that cover the electricity value chain from production through consumption.  No other school offers this breadth of electricity programs.   All of these programs have advisory committees made up of industry professionals.

Utilities Engineering Technology – Associate Degree:

Courses prepare students for employment as utility system engineering technicians, designers, coordinators, planners, and substation relay technicians in the utility industry from power generation through transmission and distribution.

Electric Power Distribution – Technical Diploma:

Courses prepare students to install, maintain, and operate electrical systems to supply electric energy to electric utility customers.

Power Engineer and Boiler Operator – Technical Diploma:

Courses prepares students to manage, operate, and control low and high pressure boilers and auxiliary systems in factories, power plants, and buildings

Energy Management Technology - Associate Degree:

Courses prepare students with the skills and knowledge needed for the field of building energy management

Electricity – Technical Diploma:

Prepares students to install, maintain, and service electrical equipment used in residential, commercial, and industrial settings.

Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration – Associate Degree:

Courses prepare students to work with the control of air in respect to its heating, cooling, humidity, and cleanliness.  Students will be able to install, service, troubleshoot, and repair HVAC/R systems.

Solar Energy Technician – Associate Degree

Courses prepare students to provide a skilled workforce of technicians who are able to design, install, operate, and maintain solar electric and solar thermal systems for both residential and light commercial applications.

Wind Energy Technology – Associate Degree:

Courses prepare students as installation technicians, quality control technicians, and warranty and commissioning technicians for the installation, operation, and maintenance of wind turbines.

Substation Apprentice Program – Apprentice Program:

Eight weeks of courses spread over four years supplement the on the job training that utility substation technicians receive.

Smart Grid – Certificate Program:

                These web-based courses provide an overview of many smart grid related topics.

Smart Grid Workforce Training: Mobile Smart Grid Training Lab

I’ll talk about the Mobile Smart Grid Training Lab we’re developing. 

The Lab will provide a hands-on learning environment to teach the concepts, features, and operation of the smart grid to incumbent utility workers, students, and trade allies, as well as to serve as a demonstration device to the general public.  It’s an impossible effort to include everything about the smart grid, but we’re trying to include as much as we can.

The Lab is housed in a 53’ converted semi-trailer.   It can be towed to and set up in any location to provide training.  It will operate on either a connection to 240V shore power or its two 10 kW diesel generators.  About 15 to 20 people can train in the Lab at a time.

Examples of the Lab’s training topics include smart grid enhanced reliability, power quality and system protection,  distributed generation, smart meters, demand response,  telecommunications and cyber-security,  electric market participation and microgrids.

The primary audiences are electric utilities and technical (community) colleges in eastern Wisconsin. The Lab can also travel outside the region. It should be ready for use in September 2012.

The Nature of Knowledge

Almost all of the smart grid dialog today talks about the technologies, standards, protocols, processes, and goals regarding the smart grid.  Important and necessary topics to be sure, but there’s a significant component missing to make the conversation complete.  What’s missing is there’s not a lot of dialog concerning how we’re going to get the workforce ready.

Vendors, suppliers and consultants will provide training on the specific details of devices, networks, deployment strategies, and other topics.  But what about the interconnected knowledge needed to make this entire smart grid concept a reality?   How does utility regulation relate to customer education, how does enhanced reliability relate to Demand Response?

Developing broader smart grid training is challenging.  The subject is too new, too young, too dynamic, and too diverse.  This is not like training for most other subjects that have a known body of knowledge – if you want to teach welding you have a set of known processes and materials needed.  If you want to teach economics there is a history and a standard set of markets and market principals.  We don’t have a known body of knowledge for the smart grid.

While we know a lot about what the grid is now and what the smart grid may look like, we don’t know what the end will look like.  A standard project management phrase is ‘do we know what done looks like’.  For individual utilities we could create a project that takes them from today and design and conduct work that leads eventually to a preferred smart grid end-state.  But the next utility may have a different preferred end-state.  What does done look like? Utility A for example may choose to use load-tap changing transformers for voltage support, contract out their communications infrastructure, have their IT department do the analytics work, and contract out their Demand Response work.  While Utility B may use capacitors for voltage support, have their distribution engineering department do the analytics work, and develop the communication backbone and Demand Response programs in-house.  When we have a myriad of potential paths to a specific goal, it’s difficult today to provide any specifics about what the end will look like.

So how do we train people?  With smart grid training we need to cast a wide net.  We need first to provide training on all the major smart grid topics like distribution management systems, smart meters, micro-grids, and building energy management.  Second, we need to train on all the potential paths for getting from narrow subjects like customer education or utility rates to the final smart grid goal of customer adoption of Demand Response.   Mapping out smart grid training will produce a picture similar to the smart grid itself – an overlapping network of nodes with knowledge taking the place of data or control signals.

Smart Grid Workforce Training

Our smart grid activities focus around workforce development.  Our current work is funded by a Department of Energy grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”).  We have two main areas of focus: a web-based Smart Grid Certificate program comprised of 24 courses that teach different aspects of the smart grid, and a Mobile Smart Grid Training Lab that teaches incumbent utility workers and others about smart grid operations in a hands-on environment.  I’ll talk a bit about the Certificate Program in this post.

The Certificate courses are intended to provide a smart grid overview.  Each course will focus on a specific smart grid topic such as reliability and power quality, smart utility rates, or telecommunications and cyber-security.  Courses will involve about 35 to 40 hours of instruction and run for five weeks.  The course schedule will follow NWTC’s calendar so someone could take three smart grid courses over a 15-week semester.  Since the courses are internet-based, they can be taken from anywhere.

The breadth of smart grid topics provides something for everyone involved in the electric industry: utility workers, trade allies, business people, government staff, and students.  Anyone with a high school education, an interest in learning and basic Microsoft Office skills is capable of succeeding in these courses.

The first three courses will be available in the fall of 2012. Nine more courses will be added in the spring of 2013, followed by the final twelve courses in the fall of 2013.  The first three courses are “Introduction to Electric Utilities”, “Overview of the Smart Grid”, and “Smart Grid Financial Analysis”.