U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that the Department of Energy is announcing award selections for nearly $100 million for 54 smart grid workforce training programs that will help prepare the next generation of workers in the utility and electrical manufacturing industries. These projects will leverage more than $95 million in funding from community colleges, universities, utilities and manufacturers to develop and implement training programs. The selectees estimate that the programs will train approximately 30,000 Americans. These workers will help to modernize the nation's electrical grid and implement smart grid technologies in communities across the country. Secretary Chu made the announcement while visiting a Pepco engineering and service center in Rockville, Maryland that is receiving $4.4 million in funding that the company estimates will train 700 new and existing employees. This funding is the latest investment by the Obama Administration to develop the smart grid and builds on the more than $4 billion in Recovery Act funding for smart grid deployment and demonstration projects nationally.

In Asia, the utilities industry is growing at an incredible rate. Investments globally in the sector have lead to more available jobs, predicting the return to pre-recession levels of employment by Q1 2010. However, with such substantial growth comes opportunities which have to be managed correctly to sustain long-term development. With the world's investors looking at Asia to see how such a developing region can deal with governmental pressures on Green Technology, a meeting of the leading names in Asian and Pacific Utilities firms have agreed to meet at the illustrious NGU APAC summit.

The Copenhagen Climate Change meeting will dramatically change the utility landscape. Carbon Reduction will mandate energy-efficiency upgrades in homes and businesses across Asia. To relieve Government pressures Companies are looking into smart grid solutions and superior technology to improve efficiency, performance and reliability. "Australia, Singapore and China all have smart grid initiatives underway and Korea has recently announced that it wants its industries to win 30% of the smart grid market globally. The smart grid makes sense for all countries in Asia?" Rick Nicholson - VP Research, IDC Energy Insights.

The United Kingdom has expressed the goal that all homes will have smart meters from their supplier by end of 2020. Smart energy use will save consumers money, make electricity use more efficient and cut carbon emissions. Smart meters will be rolled out through energy suppliers to every home by the end of 2020 under final plans published today by Energy and Climate Change Minister of State Lord Hunt. A paper setting out the case for developing smart grids in the UK is also being published. Lord Hunt said: "A global climate deal in Copenhagen needs all countries to make the most ambitious commitments possible, but it will also require all of us to change how we lead our lives and how we generate our energy. Smart meters will put the power in people's hands, enabling us all to control how much energy we use, cut emissions and cut bills. Smart grids will help manage the massive shift to low carbon electricity such as wind, nuclear and clean fossil fuels. Globally the business of developing smart grids has been estimated at £27 billion over the next 5 years and the UK has the know-how to be part of that."