Electric Power Research Institute
GridEd is a collaborative educational initiative consisting of the Electric Power Research Institute, and originally seven (7) Partner universities (Arizona State University, Clarkson University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Portland State University, University of California–Riverside, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, and University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez), and participating utility and industry sponsors. This educational initiative focuses on developing and training the next generation of power engineers so they can help shape the electric grid of the future by anticipating and fulfilling the needs of changing electric industry requirements. GridEd is leveraging electric industry research to educate a future electric grid workforce by empowering new and continuing education students, not only to become competent and well-informed engineers, but also to participate and influence major technological, social, and policy decisions that address critical global challenges.
The history for organizing the collaborative stems from the U.S. Department of Energy’s award to EPRI and its team through two initiatives -- Grid Engineering for Accelerated Renewable Energy Deployment (GEARED) and Solar Training and Education (T&E) for Professionals (STEP). These two cooperative agreements resulted in an eastern U.S. initiative (the original effort) and subsequently a western U.S. initiative. The respective names for these efforts are GridEd-East and GridEd-West. Collectively, the project is called GridEd, and all resources and products are shared between the two efforts. The differentiation has been maintained to reflect regional differences in the philosophies, as well as organizing student activities where time shifts demand separate organizational efforts.
GridEd’s activities are centered around four core pillars:
- Enhancement of university power systems engineering curricula,
- Professional development and training for a diverse electric industry workforce,
- Stimulating both university and K-12 students to join the movement for the next generation of power engineers,
- Improve workforce development efforts in the electric utility industry.
