A $2.7 million federal grant will be used to create a job-training program to prepare 250 disadvantaged Fayette County residents to work in so-called “green” jobs.

The money is part of $150 million in federal stimulus funds awarded to 38 agencies nationwide through its Pathways out of Poverty program, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Fayette’s program will be administered through the Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette Inc.

The money is to be used to train people for jobs in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy. In Fayette, those fields will include the windmill, solar, and geothermal heating and cooling industries, among others, according to Sean Sypolt, project manager.

Training will be provided through Fayette area businesses and educational institutions, including Penn State Fayette, said Tim Yurcisin, president and CEO of PIC Westmoreland/Fayette.

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PPL Electric Utilities will receive $19 million in federal stimulus money to use “smart grid” technology to improve electric service for about 60,000 Harrisburg-area customers.

The project aims to move power more efficiently, react instantaneously to changes on the delivery system and automatically reroute power around problems that occur, according to the company.

The federal grant money comes from a pot of more than $3.4 billion set aside by the federal government to update the nation’s power grid. Half of the $38 million project will be funded through the grant, the other half will be paid by PPL.

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The administration Tuesday released a list of about 100 companies and communities in 45 states and territories that will receive federal subsidies to modernize the electric grid. The administration promised the projects would create “tens of thousands of jobs.”

Among the big winners are companies and communities in Florida, which received more than $267 million in grants, and North Carolina, which got more than $400 million, including more than $200 million for units of utility giant Duke Energy Corp., which has supported administration efforts to modernize technology and cap greenhouse-gas emissions.

Peco Energy Co. was awarded a $200 million federal stimulus grant yesterday that will allow it to speed up deployment of “smart-grid” technology, including 600,000 advanced electric meters in the next three years.

The grant will allow the Philadelphia electric utility to rapidly roll out a plan to install “smart meters” that will allow customers to monitor electric prices in real time. The utility plans to convert all 1.6 million of its customers to the devices in a decade.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Inside a tiny office in a business park near West Virginia University, Allegheny Power is testing the power-control system of the future.

The electric meters and programmable thermostats on two office walls connect to a large television screen, which a technician uses to monitor changes in room temperature. The screen tells the tech when the air conditioning or heating unit needs to shut down.

Like other utilities across the nation, Allegheny Energy is experimenting with technologies called “smart grids” to find solutions to age-old problems — inefficient energy usage and rising electric costs.

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What the smart grid needs most of all, of course, is money. Without it, the grid will languish, and IT won’t reap its benefits. Yesterday, the federal government gave the grid a big boost with more than $57 million in stimulus money. That’s a very big boost.

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Pennsylvania will offer grants to businesses, nonprofits, universities, local governments and utilities to begin environmentally sustainable and economically viable energy projects across the state.

The state also will continue to fund advanced energy projects, tailoring programs to economic sectors. It also will establish a revolving-loan fund to provide financing for clean-energy and energy-efficient facility construction, renovations and technology development.

But with all eight already promised the grants the DOE announced Monday, it’s not clear what light the news sheds on how the department will pick and choose technologies when it comes to spending the rest of that money.

Still, they’re interesting projects covering a broad range of technologies, from superconducting transmission lines and integrating renewable energy into the grid to new forms of demand response and so-called “microgrid” systems.

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated $373 million to Pennsylvania to move toward energy independence. Federally, investments of $43 billion will be targeted toward energy projects across the country, and of that $4.6 billion will be used in developing the nation’s smart grid.

Uses for the funding include energy audits and energy efficiency retrofits in residential and commercial buildings, development and implementation of advanced building codes and inspections, and the creation of financial incentive programs for energy-efficiency improvements.

Grants are also available for numerous other uses, such as transportation programs that conserve energy and energy-efficient traffic signals and street lights.

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Pennsylvania’s energy office will receive $23.6 million. These Philadelphia-area municipalities and counties will receive funding:

• Abington, $500,000

• Bensalem, $576,600

• Bristol, $492,500

• Cheltenham, $147,400

• Chester, $156,000

• Philadelphia, $14.1 million

• Bucks County, $3.9 million

• Chester County, $4.6 million

• Delaware County, $3.7 million

• Montgomery County, $6.2 million

The funding is in addition to $352.5 million in weatherization and energy for the state from the federal stimulus package, which was announced on March 12.