Battery technology, business and innovation classes will be offered on the San Jose State University campus. The "battery university" is a joint initiative by the school and CalCharge, an energy storage accelerator program.

The utility industry faces both a graying workforce and a younger future worker who associates utility jobs with climbing poles and flipping switches. Brynn Downing of the Energy Providers Coalition for Education explains a program that Northeast Utilities participated in to try to solve one part of that pipeline problem.

Despite a pretty rough past few years, a new forecast says the lithium-ion battery market will double by 2016. Click to see how market intelligence firm Frost & Sullivan says that will happen.

In the Interesting to Know Department: FERC's monthly tracking of new and expanded energy projects showed that all new U.S. power generation capacity in January 2013 came from renewables. We break it down, and you can decide what - if anything - it all means.

This short video features Charles Dickerson, vice president of performance management and support services at Pepco Holdings, Inc. discussing the importance of cybersecurity for utilities.

This video provides a look into the smart grid program at Burbank Water and Power and how Siemens is helping the municipal utility capture data to help their customers make responsible energy consumption choices.

This is a very well done and entertaining video from Toshiba that demonstrates how its smart Modular Data Center supports next-generation smart community infrastructure.

Which metering company announced both an AMI win in San Diego and an AMR win in Pakistan this week? Which utilities ranked highest in the annual J.D. Power and Associates' study of business customer satisfaction? We've got the answers - and plenty more too in this week's roundup of smart grid wins.

Want to hear what Itron's new CEO Philip Mezey has to say about smart grids, smart cities, big data and China? Xconomy ran an interview with him where he has some interesting things to say about those topics and others. It's one of several "good reads" that caught our eye recently.

New Jersey's Public Service Electric & Gas Company was, like so many others, hit hard by the violence of Hurricane Sandy. Now, it's asking state regulators to approve an almost $4 billion proposal to protect and strengthen its electric and gas systems against expected future catastrophic storms

Smart Grid News regularly publishes strategic overviews of key vendors to help utilities decide which companies will make good partners. Does the vendor see things as you do? Does its roadmap for the future match up with where you want to go? Today we take a close look at ABB - its worldview, key themes, strengths and challenges.

Major international vendors are hunting for partners in 35 emerging market countries to take advantage of what is expected to be a $66 billion smart grid market opportunity within the next 10 years. As a Northeast Group study points out, that could mean the M&A market focus will shift from North America and Europe to those emerging locales.

A new report from GlobalData found that Americans pay far less for electricity than those in Europe. As the report points out, the combination of wholesale prices, energy mix, taxes and subsidies is driving the higher European prices. Should Americans be paying more now rather than a lot more later?

Who knew something called quantum cryptography could play a role in protecting the grid from cyber thugs? A team at Los Alamos National Lab says they've demonstrated the concept successfully. Click for more on that, plus updates on smart grid demos focused on integrating renewables, assessing a transactive control system and bringing smart grid technologies into the real world.

The nation’s largest smart grid demonstration project has released an annual report that describes its 2012 activities, including installing numerous smart grid technologies and rolling out its distinctive two-way communication signal between electric providers and users.

There's always a lot going on in the smart grid energy storage field, primarily driven by the need for grid-scale storage to handle increasing amounts of renewable energy and in smaller form to provide better, cheaper batteries for EVs. We thought you might be interested in some current storage projects, technologies and thinking, some of which admittedly sounds a little crazy.

Following its recent transition from a public-private partnership to a member-led, industry-based organization, the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel has named its first CEO. Click for details on the experience Patrick Gannon brings to the SGIP.

With funding from DOE and help from three national labs, NRECA's Cooperative Research Network has developed an important modeling and simulation tool that gives utilities the chance to test smart grid scenarios in software before trying them in person.

Rural electric cooperatives in 12 states are on the receiving end of $330 million in loan guarantees from the Agriculture Department for generation, T&D and smart grid technologies. Click to see who's doing what with the money.

Given the fits and starts in the electrical vehicle movement, is there another way to encourage consumer adoption? Peter Gardett of AOL Energy talked with an Edison Electric Institute executive about a new strategy EEI believes might help.