Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | May 29, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 11 PHOTO | COURTESY OF NATIONAL GRID Staffing the front lines Ahead of a major expansion of the electric grid and in the midst of generational retirements, utilities are working to fill positions key to keeping the lights on and hitting the region's renewable energy goals BY KEVIN KOCZWARA Special to WBJ S ara Dalton worked in the service industry for years. She'd spent time in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachu- setts as a waitress, bartender, and in customer service. She'd moved around New England working. And now she needed to move home from New Hampshire back to Worcester to help take care of a sick family member. When that family member moved into a long-term care facility, she started to look for what was next. Dalton enrolled Trainees at the Energy Infrastructure Academy in Millbury receive instruction from National Grid supervisors on electrical safety and protocols. in classes at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester and met with a counselor at the Massachusetts Reha- bilitation Commission, which provided her with a computer and helped her pay for college as well as helped her figure out what she should study. "I wasn't going to go back to be a doc- tor," Dalton said, "because by the time I finish all that schooling, I'd be the age of retirement." What she decided on was the energy sector: utilities. "I like to learn and to challenge myself, but also I know that the energy sector as a whole, I'm not going to say is recession-proof because nothing is recession-proof, but utility companies aren't going anywhere," Dalton said. What Dalton knew is at some point the exodus of the Baby Boomer gener- ation from the workforce would hit the utility sector and its companies would soon need to replenish their workforces, especially when it comes to lineman and other frontline workers. is exodus of experienced front- line utility workers was accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic and comes amid new government efforts to greatly expand the size of the New England electric grid, particularly to accommo- date renewable electricity and clean energy efforts. e need for more utility workers is a main topic of industry focus right now, and it was one of the key discussion points during the Mass Energy Summit on May 12 at the DCU Center in Worcester. e clean energy sector added 134,000 clean energy workers in 2021, and employment across the sector has grown by 73% since 2010, according to the 2022 Massachusetts Clean Energy Industry Report. To help the utilities find qualified employees, and to help people like Dalton looking to get into the industry, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is bolstering funding for programs at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. "We are investing more dollars into that Clean Energy Center to make it a hub for folks to get information and ad- vance their programs," State Rep. Jeffrey Roy (D-Franklin), chair of the Legis- lature's Utilities & Energy Committee, said at the Mass Energy Summit, which was put on by Worcester Business Jour- nal. "We put $50 million into the Clean Energy Center last year. We put another $25 million in this year's budget. We see them as a real great resource … One of the pilot programs that we put into the 2022 bill was an industry-recognized credentialing incentive program to get our traditional high schools and other educational institutions involved in training the workforce for tomorrow." Job openings, everywhere In the wake of COVID, the Great Resignation was being touted as a cause for concern for employers looking for workers. In fact, though, older workers had begun leaving their job in a steady number since the Baby Boomer gener- ation, which is the largest generation in American history, entered into retire- ment age starting in 2008. "A record number of workers did FOCUS E N E R G Y & S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y Continued on next page March 2022 Feb. 2023 March 2023 203,000 169,000 221,000 Quit levels in the U.S. utility industry The number of workers nationally who left their jobs in the utilities, transportation, and warehousing sector each month. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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