The journey from survival to overconsumption reflects a universal struggle for balance, whether on a micro-level in our personal lives or at the macro-level in industries like energy. Initially focused on providing power to fulfill fairly modest human and societal needs, the energy sector now faces the challenges of excess as customer demand continues to rise in order to satisfy energy overconsumption.

By examining the spectrum from survival to overconsumption and its consequences, utility companies can recognize the need to realign with their foundational purpose – delivering reliable, resilient energy. However, achieving this reset requires intentional investment in the operational workforce, fostering innovation, collaboration, and community stewardship as cornerstones of progress.

Utility companies were established to provide reliable power to homes and businesses to meet essential needs. In this early stage, the industry’s purpose was clear: ensuring energy was accessible, affordable, and dependable.

This focus reflected the survival phase, where basic needs drive actions. Utilities operated with purpose and clarity, grounded in their mission to serve communities. Employees, too, were deeply connected to this mission, aligning their work with the essential goal of powering lives.

As the industry matured, it transitioned from survival to growth. Stability allowed for infrastructure expansion, technological innovation, and modernization. Energy became abundant and readily available.

As demand for energy continued to grow, utilities became leaders in societal and industrial progress, improving efficiency, digitizing operations, and launching customer-focused programs. Workforce development played an important role here, as utilities equipped employees with the skills needed to manage an increasingly complex grid and navigate a rapidly changing energy landscape.

However, as growth gave way to ever-increasing energy demands, the balance shifted. The ever-increasing demands of overconsumption brought disconnection. Utilities, in response to rising pressures and expectations, were forced to expand infrastructure and capacity, often without the time and opportunity to prioritize efficiency.

Practices became misaligned with the original mission of providing resilient and reliable power. Redundant systems, inefficiencies, and lagging innovation began to dominate. As the industry became disconnected from its foundational purpose, employees often mirrored this disconnection, grappling with outdated systems and a lack of clarity around their role in the energy transition.

The consequences of this long period of increasing overconsumption are evident. Aging infrastructure, environmental degradation, and declining public trust reflect a system out of balance. Utilities face challenges not only in meeting modern needs but also in engaging and equipping their workforce to tackle these demands.

Reclaiming Balance: Cultural Reset

To reclaim balance, a cultural reset is needed – one that places mission and purpose at the center of operations. Workforce development must be a pillar of this reset. The employees who have carried the energy industry through the last several decades are retiring and we must recruit and train a new workforce to meet the challenges ahead.

A 2016 report prepared by the Democratic Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, stated that the average energy worker in the U.S. was seven years older than the average worker across all industries and that energy worker retirements were occurring at a rate more than double the percent of new employees being trained.

Some progress has been made over the past eight years. The “2024 United States Energy & Employment Report,” from the U.S. Department of Energy, states that “the energy workforce was younger than the U.S. workforce as a whole, with “eighty two percent of the energy workforce younger than fifty-five compared to the national workforce average of seventy-seven percent.”

Even so, more than 1.4 million energy workers today are aged fifty-five and up, which means a significant number of skilled and knowledgeable employees will be retiring over the next decade.

How to Move Forward

Just as utilities must align their strategies with modern societal needs, they must also reimagine how they empower and support their teams. By investing in apprenticeship programs and partnerships with schools, utilities can rebuild a talent pipeline aligned with emerging industry demands.

Leadership development programs focused on innovation and change management will ensure leaders are equipped to guide this transformation. Cross-functional training can foster a holistic understanding of utility operations, helping employees collaborate effectively and see the bigger picture. These efforts represent a return to the basics of engagement – mentoring, educating, and creating clear pathways for career growth.

To build a workforce that reflects the communities they serve, utilities are conducting community and employee assessments, hosting listening sessions, and implementing mentorship programs. These efforts not only enhance equity but also rebuild trust within the workforce and with external stakeholders. A renewed focus on workforce development can help utilities reconnect with their mission, fostering a culture where innovation thrives, and employees feel valued.

Recognizing this, AEIC has launched a Workforce Development Committee to focus on equipping utility leaders to build highly skilled and optimized operational teams that will drive industry transformation. This new committee will draw on AEIC’s utility members from across North America to lay the foundation of knowledge and best practices for designing a strong workforce capable of meeting the challenges ahead.

Adapting to technological advancements is another key component of this cultural reset. Automation and digital tools are transforming the energy sector, but their success depends on a workforce prepared to harness them.

Upskilling existing workers and hiring a new generation of employees in areas like data management, analytics, and digital literacy ensures teams can effectively leverage these tools. Transition plans for workers affected by automation can help utilities retain institutional knowledge while enabling employees to take on new, impactful roles. These efforts also align with the broader goal of addressing inefficiency and aligning utility practices with long-term sustainability.

By returning to their roots and prioritizing sustainable workforces, innovation, and community engagement, utilities can redefine success and achieve resilience by empowering their teams to thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape.

This cultural reset must extend beyond organizational strategy to the workforce itself, emphasizing systems thinking, collaboration, and adaptability. Employees who understand how people, processes, and technologies interact are better equipped to solve complex problems and drive meaningful change.

The spectrum from survival to overconsumption offers a valuable lens for understanding the challenges faced by the energy industry. It also highlights the importance of workforce development in reclaiming balance and purpose.

By investing in employees and fostering a culture of adaptability, utilities can increase trust, improve efficiency, and continue to achieve safe, reliable, and affordable power. The energy sector’s transformation is not just about technology or infrastructure – it’s about people. With a renewed focus on workforce development and community collaboration, the industry can transition from imbalance to a future defined by innovation and impact.

A personal note, if I may. Public Utilities Fortnightly started its run ninety-eight years ago with the enthusiastic support of NARUC and the utility leaders of that day so long ago. Its mission, to be a platform for the principled perspectives of the thought leaders of the late nineteen twenties and early thirties on utility regulation, policy, and management, to impact the debates about them, all in the service of the public interest.

Throughout its history, to today, PUF has mostly served that mission well. It was not perfect, to be sure. In the middle decades of the twentieth century, it sometimes leaned over to one side, first by politicking against public power through the fifties, then by complaining about the states putting in place consumer advocacy agencies through the seventies. In the late nineties, caught up in the push to deregulate nearly everything in sight, across the utilities industry, and in the belief that utility regulation was passe, PUF was sold to its employees.

From then, to a decade ago, PUF became increasingly commercial and decreasingly focused on utility regulation and the public interest. Accordingly, interest in PUF by the utility regulatory community waned.

But then, your PUF team took the reins, in late 2015. Since that point, well, you know the rest of the story. In the last decade, PUF has grown enormously. From our hard work. From our refocus on utility regulation and the public interest. And, most certainly, from the enthusiastic support of leaders across the state commissions, state advocacy agencies, electric, natural gas and water utilities, and the associations, vendors, and professional firms that support them.

What next? That’s been on my mind of late. I have felt like what Gene Rodenberry, the legendary creator of Star Trek, must have felt in the late nineteen seventies. It has become evident to me in the last couple of years, as it must have been for him, that it is time for the next generation to carry the torch, albeit at warp speed. To keep the story going. But freshly, so the story can have as much meaning for those younger as it has had for those older.

It was then that we started talking with the folks leading the Smart Electric Power Alliance. Beginning with a conversation at last year’s NARUC Winter Policy Summit with SEPA CEO Sheri Givens, a former utility officer, a former state consumer advocate.

SEPA clearly was as passionate about Public Utilities Fortnightly as we were. And was ready to invest aggressively to really ramp up our capacity and expand our service to you and the entire utility regulatory and policy community.

Assuring me that PUF would blow past its hundredth birthday in 2028 and well beyond fulfilling that noble mission set so long ago. To be a platform for the principled perspectives of the thought leaders of today and tomorrow on utility regulation, policy, and management, to impact the debates about them, all in the service of the public interest.

So, naturally, I said, “Beam me up, Scotty.” So now, PUF is powered by SEPA. Which is, I think, kinda like Mr. Scott’s warp drive.

How should utilities transform their organizations and workforce to be competitive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape?

Meredith Bodkin: Utilities today face a more rapidly evolving, highly disruptive landscape than ever before, antiquating the static business models and one-way transmission and distribution of past decades.

With heightened regulatory environments, shifting work paradigms, suffering workforce cultures, and increasing customer load demands, utilities that want to remain competitive must make continuous transformation a core component of day-to-day operations. Utility workforce and operating model innovations are essential for cultivating the agility required to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics.

Utilities must embrace flexible, modern workforce models, including multi-sector workforces, to generate the capabilities and capacity they need to innovate and mature at the pace of today’s market demands. The race for skilled resources is more competitive than ever as the existing workforce ages and labor markets wane, making enterprise alignment on talent acquisition strategies, career pathways, and succession planning critical.

In addition, skill gaps are becoming more apparent with advances in technology (particularly AI) and innovation in core business processes, creating a greater need for investment in upskilling, reskilling, and retaining top talent to drive sustainable change and profitability.

Organizational structures must evolve in lockstep with the workforce. The emerging distributed, intelligent, and mobile grid requires an innovative, collaborative, and dynamic operating model. Utilities must redesign their internal structures, processes, and technologies to deliver greater customer value.

Structures must remain flexible so they can rapidly respond to changing market demand and more easily adopt new business models and emerging technologies, such as advanced analytics and modern IT/OT systems.

Organizational transformation should also include external elements for additional agility and resilience. Building partnerships with technology providers, government, and industry accelerates capability building, allowing utilities to innovate more effectively and set new industry standards. The transformation utilities must experience is ultimately a generational one, and the people side of change cannot be neglected. When these issues are addressed effectively, utilities are better positioned for significant growth.