The coming labor shortage could become the most significant problem the electric utility industry will face in the next five to 10 years.

“It is possible to end up with a scenario where some utilities are operating like utilities in third-world countries,” said Steven C. Kussmann, executive director of the Utility Business Education Coalition in Reston, Va. “They won’t have a sufficient number of qualified people to operate them. The result will be dangerous working conditions and unreliable power.” Politicians will have a heyday with this, he said.

A study released by Carnegie Mellon University in March 2005 found that demand for entry level electric lineworkers is expected to grow by 9 percent every year, with 10,000 new jobs opening up by 2010. In addition, 

more than 1,000 new power plant operators will be needed each year for the next 10 years.

While the demand will be increasing, the supply will be decreasing. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the United States will face a shortage of 12 million qualified skilled workers by 2010 and 20 million by 2020.

The average age of today’s utility employee is 48, about four years older than the average for all industries. This means utilities will be the first to suffer from the upcoming skills gap.

“While the labor shortage will affect the nation as a whole, it is of particular concern to utilities, because their work forces tend to be older than most other work forces,” said Kussman.  Moreover the average worker age for public power utilities is higher that for the utility industry in general. In public power, the average worker is “pushing 50,” he said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that more than half of today’s utility work force (about 300,000 workers) will be eligible for retirement over the next 10 years and most of them plan to retire. A study by the American Public Power Association found that the positions expected to experience the highest rates of attrition over the next five years are those that are already the most difficult to fill—engineering technicians and skilled and craft employees.

There are several causes of the shortage:

1. In the last 10 years, the number of high school students taking trade- or industry-related vocational and technical courses has declined 35 percent.

2. The nature of jobs utilities offer to their employees has been changing in recent years. “The jobs require more education, for three reasons,” said Kussman. First, restructuring has caused decision-making to be brought down to lower levels. Second, levels of technology are increasing. “There are very few jobs anymore, even the traditional manual jobs, that don’t involve fairly sophisticated technology, so workers need the ability to understand math and computer skills,” he said. Third, since organizations are smaller, there is greater demand for strong communication and self-management skills. “For all of these reasons, we are finding that most entry-level jobs in the industry now require some post-secondary education, such as a two-year degree,” he said.

3. “Fewer and fewer students coming out of high school are prepared for college-level courses, so they have to take remediation courses,” said Kussman.

4. Failure rates on utility pre-employment tests are increasing. A 2004 survey by the Utility Business Education Coalition found that more than half of applicants for entry-level skilled positions in utilities lacked academic or basic skills for employment.

5. People are gravitating to jobs that are not physically demanding and dangerous and do not require extensive shiftwork, according to Kussman,

6. Demographics are changing. “In the past, utilities traditionally hired white males,” said Kussman. “These days, they are becoming a smaller part of the work force. Women, Hispanics, and other minorities are becoming a larger segment of the work force.” However, according to Kussman, Hispanic and Black dropout rates from high school are approaching 50 percent. While the numbers of minorities are increasing, the numbers of qualified workers from these minorities is not increasing significantly.

7. While some industries can attract people who are willing to relocate, most utilities are limited to hiring people from their own communities and nearby surroundings.

8. Other industries may be competing for the same people you are trying to attract. For example, electrical contractors and other utility contracting companies will be facing the same worker shortages and seeking ways to attract more people. “The problem for public power utilities is that some of these other companies may have a more competitive way of attracting these people,” said Kussman.

All of this presents challenges to the utility industry,  which has been downsizing in recent years, Kussman said. “They have been paying a lot of attention to implementing technology as a way to compensate for the downsizing, so they haven’t placed much attention on the coming labor shortage or put much effort into recruiting,” he said.

Utility organizations have stepped up to the plate to address the coming labor shortage. The Utility Business Education Coalition (www.ubec.org), was formed in 1995 by the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association to strengthen relationships between the utility industry, education and other employers.

In October 2004, UBEC created the Utility Workforce Planning Network. This is designed to attract more youth to the industry’s skilled and craft labor jobs and ensure opportunities for technical training. Members of the group include numerous individual utilities, the American Gas Association, American Public Gas Association, American Public Power Association, Edison Electric Institute and the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The Utility Workforce Planning Network  has a number of goals:

--Develop centers of excellence model partnerships with community colleges, high schools, and work force investment boards to support training for utility careers.

--Engage utilities and educators in an effort to develop model curricula for utility training programs.

--Address basic academic and employability skill gaps in K-12 students, especially in math, science and communication skills.

--Develop a non-traditional worker recruitment initiative.

--Develop and implement a marketing and communications plan to support network outreach priorities.

--Create and maintain a clearinghouse for best practice exchange.

--Build national partnerships with federal agencies, affiliated organizations, educators, support organizations, business groups, and utility unions.

Another initiative is the Energy Providers Coalition for Education (www.epceonline.org), a partnership of electric utilities, associations and unions that offers online programs to prepare students to enter or advance their careers in electric power technology and nuclear power technology. APPA and the Northwest Public Power Association are members of the group, which was formed in 2000 by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (www.cael.org), a nonprofit organization that provides learning and work force development services.

“Our goal is to create online education programs for the utility work force,” said Jo Winger de Rondon, president of EPCE. “We created content for a two-year degree.” EPCE issued a request for proposals to select its first educational provider, Bismarck State College in North Dakota. EPCE and Bismarck have to develop content for a two-year degree program to build skills for electric transmission and distribution jobs.

EPCE is surveying its members to determine what content area to focus on next. “When the results come in, we anticipate that we will be seeking a new provider to deliver a four-year engineering degree for the industry,” said de Rondon.