Energy Unveils $100 Million Training Program

By Jim Snyder
The Hill
September 21, 2009

The Energy Department announced it would spend $100 million to train workers to upgrade the electric transmission system, as Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned China was ahead of the United States in the development of so-called “smart grid” technologies.

Chu made the announcement about the new worker-training program, which will be paid for by stimulus money, at a conference on smart grid efforts across the globe that opened Monday in Washington. Chu also announced a related $44 million program for state public utility commissions to encourage more local smart grid efforts.

A smart grid is an electric distribution system that leverages software and power-line improvements to increase the efficiency of the transmission of power from producer to user and makes it easy for consumers to cut their energy use.

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