The University of New South Wales (UNSW) will repeat a week-long training course in smart grids run in partnership with IBM and Ausgrid (formerly EnergyAustralia) for IT professionals, telecommunications engineers and electrical power engineers.

 

The Applied Smart Grids Course, piloted in February this year,  was designed to “develop the skills of telecommunications engineers, power engineers, software and information technology engineers, project managers and executive sponsors who oversee smart grid projects and arm them with the knowledge necessary to deliver complex smart grid programs."

 

Ausgrid smart grid manager, Adrian Clark, said that smart grids had created the need for a new kind of engineer, mixing engineering, IT and telecommunications skills.

 

David Jones, executive project manager, IBM Australia, said that  “IBM is intent on addressing this knowledge gap within the electrical, telecommunications, and IT industries, and assisting the university to develop new material for its under-graduate and post-graduate power engineering curriculum."

IBM has been working with Ausgrid and UNSW for the past 18 months to design the course. Professor Vassilios Agelidis, professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications and director of the Centre for Energy Research and Policy Analysis at UNSW, oversaw the progress of the first batch of industry professionals who took the course. The course will be offered again in June.