In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative created the Grid Engineering for Accelerated Renewable Energy Deployment (GEARED) program to train and educate current and future electric utility sector professionals. IREC was the national network administrator for GEARED, coordinating the activities of power systems engineering programs to address projected industry workforce needs.

GEARED prepared academia, government and industry for the current and next generation of power systems professionals for the modern electric grid. An initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (previously SunShot), IREC served as GEARED’s national network administrator (NNA).

Over the past five years, the DTTCs identified and shared training and education best practices and programs and power systems research and development with other educational institutions across the U.S.

Central to GEARED was the Distributed Technology Training Consortia  (DTTC), three regional consortiums with multiple university, utility and industry partners. The DTTCs targeted integrated power systems analysis and R&D into curriculum and short course development, internships and co-ops and continuing education. IREC served as National Network Administrator (NNA) for GEARED.

As NNA for GEARED, IREC facilitated and supported efforts of the DTTCs. The goal, accelerating growth of power systems programs and workforce capacity, worked closely with these three DTTCs:

• University of Central Florida: Foundations for Engineering Education for Distributed Energy Resources (FEEDER)
  Dr. Zhihua Qu, University of Central Florida SAIC Endowed Professor and Chair
• Missouri University of Science and Technology: Mid-America Regional Microgrid Education and Training Consortium
  Dr. Suzanna Long, PhD, PEM, F.ASEM, Professor and Department Chair (Interim), Engineering Management & Systems Engineering
• The Electric Power Research Institute: The Center for Grid Engineering Education. Tom Reddoch, Principal Investigator

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