ThisEnergyBiz article from May 2012 brings up some interesting issues relating to the looming shortfall in power systems expertise.
On the nature of the problem:
“Over the last several years, there have been two recurring themes in the power and energy community: an aging workforce with large numbers of retirements anticipated in the near future and the smart grid impact on the electrical delivery system.”
On the transition of engineers from other disciplines:
“The electric energy area is seeing an influx of mid-career engineers and executives without power backgrounds getting involved in smart grid-related issues. It is our opportunity to provide training to smooth their transition and help our industry meet the challenges ahead.”
On competition for resources from non-traditional power companies:
“Utilities are not only competing against each other and manufacturers, but also new players in the space, such as Oracle, Google, IBM and Microsoft, are hiring professionals with power backgrounds. Some companies cannot find enough formally trained power engineers for their needs. They have hired engineers from other areas of electrical engineering or other fields and are providing targeted training to bring them up to speed with power engineering principles.”
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