It may not be Harvard, but the Cincinnati State Technical and Community College is branching out to offer a degree in Smart Grid studies.

While the Smart Grid concept has had some issues getting off the ground, the initial validation from higher education should come as moral victory for backers of the idea.

The major will come into existence this fall as part of the school’s power systems engineering technology program.

According to the school’s site, Larry Feist, chairman of the energy efficiency and renewable energy major, said “the Smart Grid major is designed to capitalize on both the short term demand for technicians to install new generations of electric and gas meters, and on the longer-range need for specialists who will be able to maintain the new systems and work on the distribution and transmission aspects of the electrical grid.”

The school says that students will also be required to take part in a sequence of courses devoted specifically to the smart grid, along with the instrumentation and control systems that they are likely to encounter upon becoming a professional.