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About Us

Vision

Leading the transition to affordable, sustainable and resilient electric power systems.

Mission     

Collaborative research, education and outreach to solve challenges for modern power systems.

About ESIC

Education
The roots of ESIC began with a focus on education through the Power Professorship program, formally established at Washington State University (WSU) in 1973 by regional power companies. The founding members observed that the education of power engineers was vital to meet workforce needs and their engineering capabilities for our region and beyond.

From the establishment of the Power Professorship Program, and with a steady growth of up-to-date curriculum through ensuing years, power engineering education at WSU continues an outstanding legacy of excellence in the field of power and energy systems. Power engineering is emphasized through an extensive set of core and elective courses and hands-on-labs in the power track for students in the B.S. in Electrical Engineering degree program. We offer the graduate degrees, M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, for pursuing innovative research in power engineering. Recently, ESIC has also launched a distance education graduate degree program, Professional Science Masters in Electrical Power Engineering, to reach out to students all over the world.

Research
With the addition of top-notch power engineering faculty, research became an additional strength and focus – and the Professorship Program evolved into the Energy Systems Innovation Center we have today. Supported by a diverse group of leading experts, WSU power engineering students continue to enjoy the benefits of learning from the best in power engineering with the benefit of exposure to cutting-edge research.

ESIC is distinguished by the intellectual capabilities in multidisciplinary collaborations with industries, universities, national labs, and other institutions.  These partnerships position ESIC at the forefront of solving the power engineering challenges in transitioning to the resilient, reliable, sustainable, and affordable power grids of the future.

Outreach
Consistent with the role of a public land-grant university and the service-oriented mission of the power industry, ESIC’s education, research and outreach activities directly impact local, regional, and international power community and society at-large. Research partners collaborate to identify and develop new technology to solve the world’s energy challenges.

On average, roughly half of EE graduating students choose to specialize in the power area.  Our graduate engineers have gone on to work and excel at the highest levels in regional, national and global organizations that focus on the electric power industry and its benefit to our society.

WSU has been a founding partner and host for several leading industry conferences and workshops such as the Western protective relay conference (WPRC), the hands-on-relay school, and the ESIC summit. WPRC is the largest protective relay conference of its kind. Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) Inc., the leading protective relay company, was founded by Dr. Ed Schweitzer, an alumnus of the WSU power program. The WSU Power Engineering Program continues the tradition of mentoring outstanding engineering graduates who positively contribute to organizations in our region and beyond.

What’s Next?
The next challenges for power providers and society at-large include solutions to climate change and climate events, adequate supply of power, electrification of transportation, cybersecurity, reliability, alternate energy sources, energy storage, and more.  Each of these challenges requires engineers, scientists, mathematicians, sociologists, architects, and economists working together to find novel and impactful solutions. This multidisciplinary approach to solving problems is the core strength and operating principle of ESIC. Our synergistic approach allows the three pillars of ESIC (Education, Research, and Outreach) to flourish, as each is strengthened by the others. Considered among the best in the world, WSU is the premier power engineering program in our region.

We invite you to engage with ESIC as we march along together to a challenging, stimulating, illuminating, and exciting future!