ARGONNE, IL. - March 26, 2007 (News Release) In an agreement signed today, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the Illinois Institute of Technology are joining with the Korea Power Exchange to establish a joint training program combining training and research at Argonne with formal education at IIT.

Under this program, KPX will send members of its technical staff to Chicago to enroll in the IIT Department for Electrical and Computer Engineering. KPX staff will participate in a graduate study program while conducting applied research at Argonne. IIT has agreed to grant KPX participants credit hours of course work toward a master's degree in the form of independent study at the Center for Energy, Environmental, and Economic Systems Analysis in Argonne's Decision and Information Sciences Division. Upon completion of the program, the KPX staff will graduate with a Master of Electricity Markets.   

"This agreement brings together three organizations committed to a brighter world future through stable electricity supplies," said Al Sattelberger, Argonne associate laboratory director for applied science and technology. Argonne has collaborated with Korean energy institutions for more than 25 years, and has collaborated with IIT, employing graduate students to work with Argonne researchers on power systems analysis.

"Given the recent upheavals in global energy markets, the trend toward electricity restructuring, and a generally renewed focus on energy, electricity and environmental issues," Sattelberger said, "it is our hope that this agreement will strengthen our joint research activities in these areas that are so vital to our countries and the world, expand our successful collaboration with KPX and IIT for the benefit of all 3 institutions, and establish a Trans-Pacific partnership for years to come."

Also attending the meeting was Bruce Hamilton, the president of ADICA, who is the licensed distributor for Argonne's power market analysis tools and was instrumental in establishing the joint training program. Hamilton praised the agreement as "a major achievement which provides an opportunity for professionals from utility companies, electricity system and market operators, and regulatory agencies around the world to develop a deeper understanding of electricity markets through formal education at IIT together with the use of Argonne's innovative agent-based modeling software to analyze the impact of alternative market rules on the behavior of market participants."   

The Korea Power Exchange was founded in April 2001 as a core organization of the newly introduced electricity market following the Korean government's electricity industry restructuring plan. With responsibility for electricity market and system operation in Korea, KPX operates Asia's largest competitive electricity market and the second largest power grid in the region.

IIT is a private, Ph.D.-granting university with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, design and law.  The university and its contract research affiliate, IIT Research Institute, have an annual research budget of $130 million. Research strengths include fluid dynamics and aerospace, synchrotron radiation science, environmental engineering and regulatory policy, polymer science and recycling, food safety and technology, and transportation and infrastructure.

The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.