In 2018, only 35% of total electricity output in Europe was produced from renewable energy production units. While this represents already a considerable amount, additional efforts are needed to meet the Paris Agreements and turn the EU into a climate-neutral continent.

The SMAGRINET project has the objective to lead the transition by empowering workers, industrialists, academics, territorial representatives, and students. Accordingly, the POWER ON services were developed by the SMAGRINET team, to promote the implementation of smart grids by improving the skills of current workers in the energy sector and by creating lectures for universities on this topic.

The Université de Lorraine, a member of EERA and a partner university of the SMAGRINET project, has started a first pilot course in March 2020. One class of their Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering of the Faculty of Sciences and Technologies is currently following a module entitled "Smart grids - Economic operation and societal challenges". After the validation phase, other universities will be invited to implement these modules in their institutions. In order to ensure the success of the modules, the SMAGRINET project will establish the training of trainers programme to support local experts in the implementation of the teaching modules.

In addition to the academic modules the international mobility programme SMAGRINET, run by the Union of Estonian Electrical Industries, offers students the opportunity to obtain internships in large international companies such as ABB or Schneider Electric.

Furthermore, SMAGRINET posed itself the goal of informing citizens on the future of the energy transition. This will involve the users directly, as households will be dealing with an entirely new energy market in the future. Consequently, the SMAGRINET project is designing and implementing learning programmes for actors involved in the energy transition including the general public.

If you are interested in the SMAGRINET project, dedicated to smart grids and the energy transition, you can visit the www.smagrinet.eu website and subscribe to the project's newsletter.