The Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has been awarded $816,274 of funding under the federal stimulus package to be applied to employee hiring and training. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding is designated to help the state regulatory commission handle its increased workload caused by various renewable energy, efficiency, smart grid technology, transmission and demand response issues surfacing to address global climate change. Funds will be used to train existing personnel and hire two new staff positions assigned exclusively to the alternative energy sector, said PUC Executive Director Crystal Jackson. “We have seen a substantial increase in activity in these areas, and we expect even more in the coming years,” Jackson said. The state regulatory panel is facing a number of major renewable energy, efficiency and transmission cases in the next two years, and the new positions and training funds will be applied to its 2011-2013 fiscal year budgets.

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.