Pacific Northwest Center of Excellence for Clean Energy

The Pacific Northwest Center of Excellence for Clean Energy (PNCECE) and IncSys have signed a cooperative agreement in response to their recent awards under U.S. Department of Energy's workforce training programs. The Centralia College and IncSys awards, with a combined value of more than $20 million, will help prepare the next generation of workers in the utility and electrical manufacturing industries for Smart Grid-related jobs.

"I am truly impressed and delighted at the breadth and depth of the team that Barbara Hins-Turner, has built in gaining this prestigious award for the Northwest Center of Excellence for Clean Energy. Each time our colleagues meet and interact we learn from each other and inspire each other to take on new challenges and increase the scope of what we can accomplish together. Our support for each other spans from the high level strategic assistance to tactical implementation. There is a general and sharp awareness from all Center of Excellence Governing Board members, including representatives from utilities, unions, military and academia of the critical need to be adaptive and flexible in order to maintain US competitiveness, economic growth, job creation and energy independence into the future" states Dr. Robin Podmore, President, IncSys.

The projects will conduct workforce training programs for new hires - including displaced workers and military veterans - and retraining programs for electric utility workers and electrical equipment manufacturers to enhance their knowledge of Smart Grid technologies and implementation. These projects will help ensure utilities and manufacturers have the necessary trained workforce to support ongoing Smart Grid deployment projects, including Smart Grid investment grants and demonstration projects.

"I am very excited about partnering with Incremental Systems! They have developed an amazing tool to bring real-world grid simulation into classrooms across the five state region," commented Barbara Hins-Turner, PNCECE Executive Director.

Centralia College

The Pacific Northwest Center of Excellence for Clean Energy project is titled: "Smart Grid Workforce Development". This project will develop an online smart grid training and information portal for utilities, businesses, and consumers. The project will deliver smart grid training for utility workers in the four state region of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.

Satellite focus areas will be designed to establish standards for best practices in Smart Grid workforce development associated with (1) Line-worker tactical skill impacts, (2) plant/substation operator mechanics, (3) system operations, (4) energy efficiency gains from Smart Grid technology, (5) electric power delivery, (6) electric power transmission, (7) distributed power supply and (8) Smart Grid safety and hazard prevention.

Joint Cooperation

As an example of strategic level cooperation, Bob Topping, the newly elected Chair of the Center of Excellence Curriculum Committee, has convinced us of the need to define our signature goal along with the Critical to Quality factors. Based on this we are proposing that this signature be: "Providing energy to everyone with the need". The Six Sigma Critical to Quality factors are safe, clean, reliable, sustainable and affordable. We are training Energy Managers to accomplish this goal. These Energy Managers may specialize as Generation Managers, Grid Managers or Demand Managers. The specific IncSys corporate goal is to provide computer tools, simulators and training curricula for Grid Managers. These may be macro grid managers, micro grid managers, traditional grid managers or smart grid managers.

By using this top down mission oriented approach we can ensure that the scope of what we have to jointly accomplish is both specific and motivating. This will give all PNCECE and IncSys team members a sense of mission and clear focus as we work to build the curricula to meet this goal.

IncSys and PowerData are providing Centralia college access to PowerSimulator. This will provide them with a highly realistic simulation environment so that faculty and students can test out their curricula, knowledge and skills on practical real-world power system models.

IncSys will work with any insitution to help bring simulator-based training to the classroom. Simply call and IncSys representative to find out how to get started. 425.732.2377