POTSDAM -- Clarkson University has received a $1 million corporate grant from long-time partner GE Energy to support graduate students doing research on smart grid technology and GE's smart grid development and.

The GE Smart Grid Fellowship Program has two main goals: to advance research into a self-monitoring and self-regulating network of electric power, and to prepare the next generation of talented engineers and software developers to enter the energy field.

It will fund the education of 11 graduate students over two years. Each fellowship student will work with a dedicated Clarkson professor and a GE representative to develop research projects and conduct experiments.

Clarkson's graduate students are working on different tracks of smart grid research, including increased communication between consumers and the grid, and economic models of energy costs.

"During our first-round project reviews, which were conducted recently, the GE team was very impressed with the knowledge and articulation of the students and the depth of the smart grid research programs, which the students chose," said Dan Heintzelman, president & CEO of GE Energy Services and a 1979 graduate of Clarkson.

The smart grid is viewed as an important step toward decreasing the U.S.'s carbon dioxide emissions, 34 percent of which are generated by the U.S. electricity grid. With the smart grid system, GE hopes to dramatically increase the percentage of power generated from renewable sources, detect power outages with increased accuracy, and automatically divert electric power during peak load periods and emergencies to maintain service for the maximum number of people and businesses.