CINCINNATI — Raymond Miller doesn't want to flip on a light switch one night and find out he's in the dark because there weren't enough workers to keep the country's power plants going.
"I think there's a good chance there will be a serious problem if the industry can't find enough people quickly enough to fill jobs that are already coming open," said Miller, the University of Cincinnati's superintendent of utilities and a former commercial power manager.
Figures vary among companies, but industry officials estimate that about half of the approximately 400,000 employees in the work force will be eligible for retirement over the next five to 10 years. These include workers who operate power plant equipment and repair the lines carrying electricity to homes and businesses.
"It's become increasingly apparent that this is an industrywide situation and that we need a more national, industrywide approach to meeting critical work force needs," said Mary Miller, president of the newly formed Center for Energy Workforce Development and vice president of Edison Electric Institute.
And it's a situation that has caused some concern for a number of years, according to David Eskelsen, spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power, Utah's largest electric utility.
"(Rocky Mountain Power) has apprenticeship programs for both linemen and power plant workers, and departments are required to conduct succession planning, so that not only do they have the skilled trades jobs but also appropriate supervisory and management positions," Eskelsen said.
"We don't have many concerns. ... But it does require constant attention."
As the first of the baby boomers reach 60 this year, some utilities have grown worried enough about the potential worker exodus that they are asking more career and technical schools and colleges to offer courses in power plant operations.
The companies also are offering grants and scholarships and helping develop curriculums that include algebra and calculus as well as courses on environmental regulations, combustion engines and electrical circuits.
A handful of schools have offered power industry training programs for years, including Utah Valley State College in Orem.
UVSC associate professor Max Christofferson, program coordinator in the school's Department of Lineman Technology, said its program was started in the late 1970s by a former Utah Power lineman who saw that municipal utilities in the area needed help training employees.
"It's grown by a whole bunch since those days," Christofferson said. "We now have 70 apprentices representing the small municipalities through Utah, a little bit into Arizona, a little bit into Nevada, a little bit into Wyoming."
He said UVSC's program teaches everything from basic pole climbing and electrical theory to transformer theory and dealing with substations. "We deal with all of those apprentices to train them for substation maintenance, building power lines, maintaining power lines and the metering side of things."
Such programs are being aggressively promoted and created by utilities and colleges nationwide.
Austin Community College in Texas started a power technology degree program in May with seven students and now has about 35. Youngstown State University's two-year electrical lineworker program has grown from 11 students in 2002 to 43, and its power plant program has grown from 14 students in 2003 to 73.
"We have been getting calls from other schools and companies wanting to set up something similar," said Hector Aguilar, chairman of the electronics and advanced technologies department at Austin Community.
The retirement of veteran workers is a particular problem in the power industry. Utilities hired fewer people over the past 10 to 20 years as companies trimmed costs to achieve profitability amid deregulation.
Eskelsen said Rocky Mountain Power has been trying to keep its work force "fairly trim."
"You want to be prudent, and you want to make sure you have adequate staffing, but it's part of our commitment to run a very tight operation, because we recognize that any of our costs of providing our product may get into rates, eventually," Eskelsen said.
Electricity demand also is rising, meaning more power plants are needed and more workers to run them.
"We went through a period of time when some of the companies didn't do as much training with apprentices as they should have as far as keeping their numbers going, and ... they're worried if they don't get some people trained fast, we're going to have a real shortage problem," Christofferson said.
"The growth of especially the Western area, with the amount of people moving in, means some of our cities have gone from a crew of maybe two or three guys back in the '70s to probably 15 linemen now."
Duke Energy Corp., which worked with the University of Cincinnati to develop power plant training, knows that electricity supply is going to become tighter and more plants will have to be built, said Steve Brash, a spokesman for the utility based in Charlotte, N.C.
"We want to promote educational programs that can provide a work force able to operate these new facilities as they come online," he said.
Columbus-based American Electric Power Co. expects to save about $60,000 per employee in in-house training costs if it can hire people who already have some basic training and skills.
"It's a lot easier than having to drag someone across the finish line," said Sal Piazza, manager of technical skills for the company.
While the power industry operates around the clock and in all kinds of weather, there are attractions for workers. Graduates of two-year degree programs can earn up to $40,000 or more in starting salaries and sometimes $75,000 or more with overtime, and job security is higher than in many other industries.
"You don't hear about cutbacks in the power industry like you do in the automotive industry," said Hank Dingus, 31, of Milford, who works at an auto transmission plant and enrolled in UC's program.
"I think this is the next hot job, and I want to take advantage of it," he said.
Christofferson said he fields calls from utilities all across the United States seeking apprentice linemen.
"The demand is there, and the opportunities right now for a young person wanting to get into this field are really great," he said.
But not everyone is confident that the education programs can provide enough people. Union officials have no problem with the new college degree programs, but they believe utilities should hire employees first and then pay for the college programs.
Union officials doubt that enough people will want to spend the money and time required for a degree unless they have a guaranteed job.
"Every day we delay hiring people, another 40-year veteran is retiring and won't be there to pass along valuable experience," said Jim Hunter, director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers utility department.
But Christofferson is cautiously optimistic that the industry will find solutions to the situation.
"It's going to be maybe short in some areas, but ... we've got a young group of kids, a lot of young apprentices who are real excited about being linemen, working on power lines, working in substations, all of that," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to keep the power on."
On the Net:
Center for Energy Workforce Development: www.cewd.org
E-mail: gkratz@desnews.com