By Liz Enbysk

SGN Managing Editor

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Two colleges in Buffalo, New York are addressing the skills shortages and aging workforce in the power industry head on. A joint program of the University of Buffalo (UB) and Buffalo State College will leverage each schools' strength and expertise to train undergrad and graduate students for smart grid careers.

"The laboratory and faculty resources available at any single institution are relatively small and are not by themselves sufficient to educate a required number of smart grid personnel, but when viewed as a united front, together they provide unparalleled capability and expertise," says Mohammed Safiuddin, PhD, research professor emeritus of electrical engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The UB – Buffalo State partnership is part of a larger consortium that in 2010 received a $3 million grant from the DOE to implement the STEPS program, which is designed to quickly train a workforce for smart grid development by reducing redundancy and allowing students to travel between participating campuses for access to the most advanced technologies.

A portion of the money went toward building a smart grid lab at Buffalo State. "The lab will be used as a major training and experimental facility not just for students, but also for the power system professionals and local equipment manufacturers," Safiuddin said, noting that Esensors Inc., a startup based in Amherst, is now using the Buffalo State lab for calibration of their newly developed Smart Power Meters.

More training programs taking shape

Across the country, the California Energy Commission recently awarded $2 million to two state universities to support research aimed at smart grid job creation and building sustainable communities. As reported in EarthTechling, the smart grid job creation piece will take place at Sacramento State, where the plan is to develop training programs for clean energy jobs that will support California's ambitious smart grid agenda.