"Growth of Opportunity" - the future of the US power industry

This article in the October 2010 issue of Mechanical Engineering Magazine discusses the inevitable overhaul of the US power industry and its workforce.  Tens of thousands of new engineers are expected to be hired by 2030, but no one has been willing to predict when jobs will begin to open up or where the financial support will come from.

Electric Utilities expect about $500 billion in projects to be invested through 2030 to repair the crumbling infrastructure and accommodate the steadily increasing demand for electricity, but where the capital will come from is anyone's guess in this economy.  According to the Center for Energy Workforce Development, 45% of engineering jobs in the US power industry could become vacant by 2013 due to the aged workforce.  A vast percentage of the workforce are "Baby Boom" engineers who will be retiring soon. 

With the development of post WII technologies, the power industry exploded throughout the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  However, the deregulation of the industry in the 80's resulted in lower prices, and lower revenues.  Countless jobs were done away with as a result of the mergers, downsizing, and hiring freezes that ensued.

The result is an industry where the average worker is 48 years old, 5 years more than the average US worker.

The future need for Mechanical and Electrical Engineers is obvious, but the ones that retire will not be replaced one-to-one with new hires; staffing will be reduced.  With the evolving industry, most companies can reduce cost by outsourcing engineering and construction projects. 

However, the demand for electricity continues, and running power plants is literally a 24/7-365 job.  Everyday tasks for Mechanical Engineers "revolve around keeping power plants running for 40 to 60 years."

The article also points out ME's serve in traditional engineering roles, project managers, operations and maintenance managers, and plant managers.  In fact, the majority of managers in the utility industry are ME's.

I think this demonstrates the flexibility and breadth a Mechanical Engineering degree.  While most other fields are specialized to particular tasks, ME's study mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, materials sciences, structural analysis, and fluid dynamics.

I am well aware of the future opportunities in the power industry after working with Duke Energy.  The average age at Duke I believe is 50 years old!!!  They even offered a voluntary retirement package to condense workloads.  Young engineers will have unprecedented opportunities to take on leadership roles in the industry.

One major concern that folks at Duke and across the industry have expressed is the knowledge and experience that will be walking out the door in the coming years.  Because of the huge gap in age (you're either 50+ or 25 in the power industry it seems), there hasn't been enough time for the youngsters to learn what they need to know from the old guys.  Every plant has little nuances and tendencies; the same piece of equipment has different problems in different plants.  The things you can't learn in school, I have seen, are just as important if not more so for being a successful plant engineer.

I think it's crucial for the future reliability of the power industry to start hiring new engineers.  The knowledge of the older guys needs to be passed down before it's too late.

The government has simply made it too damn hard to raise capital for new coal or nuclear plants, and with the current recession, no one is being hired.  That's a whole other animal I won't get in to now, but some major policy changes on emissions and nuclear plants need to made, have to be made, for all of us to continue getting the reliable electricity we take for granted.