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By Bobby Bilicki

The major initiative in the electrical industry today is undoubtedly Smart Grid. When President Obama strongly supported the advancement of the century-old electrical grid with $11 billion for various initiatives in the stimulus package last year, the industry knew Smart Grid was coming—and fast.

Over the next 20 years, Smart Grid will be a prime creator of jobs in the electrical industry, but what exactly does that mean? A major implication is that if college campuses across the country don’t begin to educate their students on this movement, our ability to implement, support, and advance Smart Grid technologies across the electrical grid will be hindered. To that end, the electrical industry and education sector need to work closely to ensure that tomorrow’s workers obtain crucial education on Smart Grid technologies.

I recently visited the engineering departments at George Mason University (GMU) and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) with NEMA Smart Grid Director Paul Molitor, to expose students to the technologies and contributing factors of the Smart Grid movement. Professor Peter Pollak, who teaches at both schools, arranged the presentation.

Mr. Molitor, who was recently elected to the post of plenary secretary for the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, works directly with NEMA member companies to ensure that the industry cooperates on the development of Smart Grid standards. Thus, the students got first-hand industry knowledge from someone who is directly involved in many aspects of the Smart Grid initiative.

“Previously, I had no knowledge about this power grid project, nor would I have understood how many unique and important career possibilities that such a project would create,” said Daren Eveleigh, a first-year student at NOVA .

In order for Smart Grid to flourish, it is going to take a wholehearted collaboration between educators and industry leaders, with presentations like this being just one small step toward that goal.

• View three 10-minute videos of the presentation at GMU