Futuristic Energy Jobs

Futuristic Energy Jobs

Location: New York
Author: Ken Silverstein, EnergyBiz Insider, Editor-in-Chief
Date: Monday, June 30, 2008

Talk of the graying utility workforce is starting to get old. Now the language is focused more on pending opportunities -- the need to fill futuristic energy jobs.

It's a critical period in the utility sector. Investment in infrastructure and new technologies has been lagging but is expected to catapult in the coming years. That type of capital influx is now increasingly driven by environmental regulations, necessitating the development of clean generation and smart grid technologies that create energy efficiencies. But labor shortages are looming that could lead to project delays.

"It's not about replacing workers," says Paul Bonavia, president of the utilities group at Xcel Energy at the Edison Electric Institute's annual convention in Toronto. "It's about hiring for future needs." The Minneapolis-based utility has some in-house initiatives to develop educational programs for mid-level managers, linemen and power plant workers.

According to U.S. Department of Labor, by 2012 there will be about 10,000 more power jobs available than people willing to fill them. The average age at utilities is about 50. The matter is compounded because younger people view utilities as part of the industrial age and less thriving than other technical fields such as nanotechnology. People will be needed to fill everything from engineering jobs to those in environmental sciences and in the field servicing customers and stringing wire from pole to pole.

Research firm A.T. Kearney expects projects to cost at least 10 percent more because of resource shortages. While most utility executives expect the labor scarcity to be remedied, they are nevertheless concerned about training levels. The central issue at utilities is that the attrition rate has exceeded the rate at which people are getting educated and coming into the ranks -- all compounded by the fact that some schools have discontinued their programs to educate students for a lifetime in the utility sector.

When deregulation of the energy sector surfaced in the 1990s, utilities didn't know what it would be like to compete. The task had been to move away from a regulatory mindset and toward a way of thinking that tried to maximize returns. Many professionals subsequently came from marketing and finance departments at other endeavors and were taught to integrate their knowledge into the utility structure. But technically-oriented positions were forsaken.

The need to hire for those jobs is paramount. Take Southern Co., which is investing $4.6 billion over the next decade in new generation and transmission as well as carbon-free technologies. To attain its goals, it expects to grow its employee base from 6,500 today to as much as 10,000 by 2012. As such, it says it continually measures its resource gaps and then sets out to put together programs to assure that the people needed will be in place.

Progressive Image

To be sure, the need to reduce debt levels is running up against the need to replenish talent and provide a modern infrastructure. But all of the credit ratings services along with Wall Street recognize that the demand for power is growing while the pressures to provide reliable service is stronger than ever. Qualified job applicants are therefore a must and at all levels of the organization.

Workers in all aspects of the industry are encouraged to re-evaluate their job skills and to learn from veterans. It's about re-tooling and discovering new possibilities. For those willing to embrace change and upcoming challenges, they will carry a higher value.

Public policies, no doubt, have triggered the evolution. About half the states have some variation of renewable portfolio standards that require utilities to offer a set percentage of green energy. Meantime, both the feds and states have passed laws that have been upheld by the courts to require utilities to install modern pollution control equipment at their coal-fired plants. Now there is movement to reduce carbon emissions -- a trend that some say will mean carbon-free power plants by late this century.

"Other industries are being transformed by disruptive technologies," says Xcel's Bonavia. "The utility industry is being transformed by disruptive public policies." It will cost billions to comply, he adds, emphasizing that the key is to "stay ahead of the curve and to not get dragged around by it."

Corporate leaders must weigh financial, regulatory and environmental concerns when deciding how to staff up. Clearly, investments in ideas and people do reap returns not just for the businesses devoting the capital but for the rest of society as well. The goal then is to hire for the future -- to create a sustainable enterprise. According to a study performed by Sierra Energy Group, a division of Energy Central, about 57 percent of all utilities have a strategy in place for managing the impeding shortage of qualified workers.

The free market is responding. The real question is how soon the industry and the supporting academic institutions can ramp up. Utilities must not only act quickly but they must also recast themselves if they are to attract and retain new employees. In the case of Xcel, it says that it now asks its employees to commit to environmental stewardship and to be a part of the continuing dialogue it has with constituents.

"The notion of working for a company that is progressive is wonderful recruiting tool," says Bonavia.

Utilities are perceived as businesses that are centered on the old economy -- a stale format that has little appeal to newly minted graduates of higher learning. The revised image, however, is one that is focused on modern technologies and specifically those that will revolutionize the way energy is both generated and delivered. It's a rigorous challenge but one that has meaning to a generation bent on bringing about change.