<p>I am a current undergraduate student at U-M in the Civil/Environmental department. I am looking at doing a graduate degree in IOE, and wondering about the options of working on smart grid technology with a degree in operations research.</p>
<p>I realize that a lot of EE’s with systems concentrations work in smart grids. I looked at the curriculum and it appears that there is some overlap between EE/IOE (stochastic control/processes, lots of linear algebra).</p>
<p>I am not only looking at smart grid technology. The thing I’m liking about OR is that there are many applications.</p>
<p>So what do you think, could someone with a degree in OR work on smart grid planning/technologies? And what companies work in this area? I know that IBM has done a lot of press on the topic, but I don’t know of anyone else doing work on it besides the DOE.</p>
<p>Working on the Smart Grid: Check out big energy companies like Dominion Resources Inc or Duke Energy. Also The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which is the United States federal agency that regulates the interstate grid.
Look on the IEEE website for more Smart Grid information or [Smart</a> Grid Conceptual Framework - IEEE Smart Grid](<a href=“http://smartgrid.ieee.org/nist-smartgrid-framework]Smart”>http://smartgrid.ieee.org/nist-smartgrid-framework)
NIST is supposed to be developing standards as well.</p>
<p>I worry about cyber attacks on a smart grid and its greater vulnerability to disruption from an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link mrego. There is a fairly large energy company located not far from my school. Perhaps I’ll get in contact with them and see what they are doing.</p>