The Energy Innovation Center Institute (EICI) on July 15 announced a major expansion of its Infrastructure Academy initiative, launching the nation’s first Infrastructure Academy Regional Training (IART) Facility in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The facility will serve as the inaugural site in a planned network of up to 15 centers nationwide — each focused on preparing America’s energy and infrastructure workforce for the future.
“A skilled and prepared workforce is key to ensuring America’s energy and infrastructure dominance. EICI’s IART facility is the first-of-its-kind skilled trade training facility to combine utility, critical infrastructure, on-site power, AI, and nuclear fault modeling into a single, operational training environment,” said Rich DiClaudio, president and CEO of EICI. “We’re fusing disciplines that were once siloed — because the future workforce must be cross-trained in the challenges of on-site, all-of-the-above power stacks, resilience, cybersecurity, and AI.”
Unveiled during the July 15 Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit hosted by U.S. Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) at Carnegie Mellon University, the IART Facility will feature cutting-edge training programs in energy, utility, and critical infrastructure technologies, including microgrids, on-site power, AI data centers, and nuclear-grade resiliency modeling.
The southwestern Pennsylvania facility — targeted to serve the tri-state region of western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia — carries a budget of up to $135 million, developed in phases. The nationwide rollout of similar centers could represent a total $2.1 billion investment, according to DiClaudio.
The facility will feature:
- Classrooms, labs, lineman yards, confined space and pipeline safety simulators, pole and high-voltage yards, and rescue systems;
- A live-operating microgrid utilizing natural gas, renewables, battery storage, and simulated small modular reactors;
- A modular AI data center powered by a mixed-fuel microgrid with integrated AC/DC systems and liquid cooling for training and commercialization;
- Integrated training in cybersecurity, OT/IT grid operations, and AI-augmented skilled trades;
- A Resiliency Institute to develop nuclear-industry-grade fault analysis for distributed energy systems — aimed at optimizing system resilience without costly redundancies.
The IART Facility will build on EICI’s already robust Infrastructure Academy programs, which have trained more than 5,300 individuals, with 86 percent placed in full-time jobs, and provided safety and operator qualification training to some 1,800 incumbent energy and utility workers.
“This won’t be just another training center,” said Mike Huwar, president of Peoples Natural Gas, a founding partner of the project. “It’s the future of how we build and protect America’s most important energy and power systems — with the workforce leading, not lagging, the technology.”
The IART model is designed to deliver a high return on public investment, and is projected to create 7,350+ jobs; boost regional GDP by $944 million; and eliminate duplicative workforce spending across dozens of public and utility programs, said EICI.
With support from 21 employers, trade groups, and utility partners, the IART Facility will serve as a national blueprint for critical and digital infrastructure workforce development to blend merit-based recruitment with a focus on United States military veterans and underserved communities.