This report says, in part, that the United States is facing a critical shortage of trained professionals to maintain the existing electric power system as well as design, build, and operate the future system. The wide-ranging implications of this shortfall are of national significance. The ability to maintain a highly reliable, affordable electric power system while modernizing the nation’s generating infrastructure in support of advanced, low-carbon technology is in jeopardy.
Ensuring the proper systems and institutions are in place to respond to these challenges is important, not only in terms of advancing critical public policy goals, but because a substantial opportunity exists to create new high-skill, high-paying jobs in the energy sector at a time when record numbers of Americans are unemployed or underemployed and face financial insecurity.
In the long-term, the deployment of new technologies and generating assets - including new energy efficiency, nuclear, renewable, advanced coal with carbon capture, and smart grid technologies - will require new design, construction, operation, and maintenance skills. This is an important opportunity for new job creation and economic growth. If too few individuals with the necessary expertise are available when they are needed, workforce bottlenecks could slow the transition to a low-carbon economy regardless of the commercial readiness or funding of the underlying technologies.
Critical Insights – Existing Electric Power Sector Workforce
- The electric power generation, transmission, and distribution industry employs about 400,000 people.
- A large fraction (30 - 40 percent) of electric power workers will be eligible for retirement or leave the industry for other reasons by 2013.
- Of the 120,000 to 160,000 electric power workers that will be eligible for retirement or leave the industry for other reasons by 2013, industry surveys suggest 58,200 will be skilled craft workers and another 11,200 will be engineers.
- While recent industry predictions say that many workers will delay retirement due to the current economic downturn, it is impossible to predict how long workers will extend employment. There is a concern in the industry that delayed retirement will cause acute worker shortages in the future if many workers retire around the same time.
More simply stated, when nobody leaves no new workers can take their place and be trained upon hire into the new technologies. If we lose around 120,000 senior people “all at once” when the American cash flow revitalizes, we are going to need a lot “new guys (and Gals)” real fast. To the folks not ready to retire yet: start studying! Everyone’s jobs will be evolving in ways that aren’t even designed yet. Get smart – stay hired!
By K.B. Elliott
K. B. Elliott is a freelance writer for UtilitesJobs.com. Working positions on both the corporate consumer and provider side of utilities in the Detroit area for over 30 years gives him a unique perspective on these 24/7 businesses. To read more of his blogs, please go to UtilitiesJobsblog.com, and be sure to check out the postings for jobs in nearly any industry at Nexxt
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