The Electrical Utility worker classified as Communication/Electronic Technician, although working within the Electrical Utility may rarely be involved in work that the public may visualize. The Lineman is most often seen out on the side of the road. These are the men and women that are tasked with installing and repairing the lines, poles and hardware associated with delivering the electrical power to homes and businesses.

The Communication/Electronics Technician is involved in the "behind the scenes" operation of everything from the power plants to the home. The Communication/Electronics Technician works on the radio, fiber, microwave, telephone lines, two-way radio and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Distribution Automation).

It's this system that allows a power plant operator, dispatcher, engineer or even a company manager, the ability to sit within a room that may not even have windows and be able to not only monitor the entire electrical grid, but analyze and control the grid. Turning on or off power within the electrical grid and restoring power quickly after an outage due to accidents and weather.

The Communications/Technicians have always been a small group within a utility that may employ hundreds or even thousands of workers. An example would be a utility with 350 workers, may only have about 4 Communications/Electronics Technicians to cover a vast array of services.

The Communication/Electronics Technician position within a utility has come about over the years as the use and need to communicate to workers and devices within the field has increased. In the last 15 years the technology has evolved so rapidly that the Communication/Technician is finding that their field has completely morphed into career that more resemble that of a futuristic movie than what they might have envisioned it becoming.

Generally the utility field isn't seen as a very glamorous field to be working in. The lineman position may seem the most adventurous and is generally the highest profile. Everyone has probably seen picture or firsthand, a crew of lineman out in stormy conditions or after a car accident in the middle of the night, restoring power, resurrecting downed power pole and lines or repairing an electrical circuit to a home. While some young people may come out of college or High School and consider a job in the utility industry primarily for the pay, it isn't usually because of the glamour and excitement. 

This view of the utility industry being a dull and boring place to work will have most of the college graduates looking at jobs within the private industries.

As a result of this view, very few new workers are head for a career in the utility industry and the training to prepare them to really handle a job in the utility industry is minimal. This coupled to the fact that 46% of the engineering staff and the Communication/Electronics Technicians will be up for retirement as soon as 2012.

At a time when the entire country is looking at redesigning, re-engineering and rebuilding an entire electrical system to become a SmartGrid, incorporating home and business electrical automation, adding power generation from sources such as Algae plants, Solar, Wind, Ocean, Hydro, Fuel cell, Bio-Mass, Bio-Fuels and a number of other innovating technologies, we can see why it is more important than ever to attract talent into the Electrical Utility fields. It is even more important to not only attract these people but to provide the proper training to those already in the fields that still have a few years to work and to bridge the gap between those "seasoned" workers with the newer ones that will be carrying the load of the work within a few years. Providing the actual on the job experience and shadowing a worker that may have most of the system knowledge in their head and through real world practices, may be the only way to safely integrate the newer workforce into a rapidly evolving industry like the Electrical Utilities.

The Electrical Utility will remain anchored into the legacy or older system designs for quite some years to come and yet at the same time they will be progressing in to a futuristic system that will require high technologically skill workers to understand, implement and repair these systems. 

The process of bringing in new workers to learn under the older workers is a process that should never be put on hold. Often budgets and priorities will allow this to happen, but the price is always paid at some point. Industry after industry we have seen older workforces retire earlier and earlier and the result is always a gap between the practical knowledge in the field and the school book knowledge.

In the end not only will the industry suffer from this sort of thinking and mindset, but the consumers and public will too. In the electrical industry, with a product that is served up to every home and business, add to that an entire transportation system moving in that direction, the risks to the public's welfare by not having a fully trained and adequate workforce is unthinkable and irresponsible. 

 To summarize, the Communication/Electronics worker is a little seen, little heard of job within a very large Electrical Utility industry. The country will need a great deal of new jobs and workers to fill these specialized jobs in the years to come. It is essential to the country and it’s move towards a SmartGrid Electrical grid and it’s ability to create and use energy sustainable, safely and responsibly to make these types of careers and the training a priority today.

With this in mind, I have included the following embedded video about the history of the radio and broadcast technician that is where most of the Communication/Electronic workers have gotten their start.