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Industry Data Number of Current Workers Within State in the Utility Industry
Using workforce data published by the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) and the Florida Municipal Power Association (FMPA), the Florida Electric Cooperatives Association, Inc. (FECA), and other sources, we were able to size the overall population of energy utility workers at approximately 26,000 as of the end of 2006. Exhibit C provides a breakdown of this number by category of utility and by individual utility within each category. As expected, the preponderance of electrical utility workers is concentrated in the Investor-Owned Utility category (64%), while Municipals and Co-operatives accounted for 22% and 14%, respectively.
 Projected Number of Trained Workers Needed in the Next Five Years
Of the total employee count at all utilities, it is estimated that roughly 8,000 are categorized as line workers. Although state-level statistics project only slight growth for this category (approximately 0.3% annually between 2006 and 2014) and modest turnover (about 3.5% annually during the same period), most respondents to our needs assessment survey suggested turnover rates ranging from 5% to as high as 30% (and some even higher). Assuming that the turnover rates anticipated by our survey respondents materialize, then the industry need for incoming line workers could range from 400 to 2,400 during the 2007 – 2011 period. Using gross statistics published by Employ Florida, though, this number should be a bit more conservative, in the range of 280 to 400 incoming employees on average per year. In any event, it is in this category of employment that there is the greatest need for consistent training, since it includes the entry worker category for virtually all electric utilities.
Regarding training needs, it is apparent from discussions with survey respondents that, with few exceptions, training volume is expected to be driven by turnover more than by growth. This expectation is consistent with nationwide projections concerning the “aging workforce issue” and its impending staff replacement indications. In fact, a majority of our survey respondents reported this to be a concern in their workforce planning efforts for the years ahead. Despite this concern, less than half of our survey respondents reported having a plan to address turnover concerns, while even less (30%) reported having a planned approach to capturing applied knowledge from exiting workers. Those that do have such a plan typically use cross training and job rotation as the means by which to capture this knowledge. While the Banner Center for Energy’s systematic approach to training programs would help utility companies deal with the preparation of incoming workers, there is an additional opportunity for the Banner Center to provide a value-added service to these companies—the development and execution of knowledge retention programs designed to propagate applied knowledge throughout their workforce. A further logical extension for the Banner Center in this area is the promotion of forums for participating companies to exchange best practices and learn from each other, since the structure of the industry (at least for the near-term in Florida) remains non-competitive.
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