Cooperative Living October 2021 - 20

CloserLook | by Paul Wesslund, Contributing Columnist
New jobs
electric co-ops
Wanted: Energy Digital Experts
Renewable energy trends and a smarter grid create new careers
K
eeping your lights on has always
been a high-tech job, but now
it's gone even higher. Need
proof? Look at the new job titles
electric cooperatives are filling, like
data scientist and cybersecurity analyst.
Venkat Banunarayanan, vice
president of Integrated Grid Business
& Technology Strategies with the
National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association, describes a " workforce
evolution " in electric co-ops, resulting
from new patterns in the flow of
electricity and the explosion of digital
technology.
For example, electric co-ops are
preparing for the effects of a lot more
people charging up electric vehicles
at home, as every major car company
has announced plans for electric
cars and trucks.
REACHING A HIGHER SCALE
Over the past couple of decades,
power lines have been increasingly
carrying tons of data. The meter at
your home is much more sophisticated
at recording and reporting your energy
With new data and technologies,
co-ops will have new career
roles to fill.
use. Attached to overhead power lines
are tennis-shoe-sized boxes, called
sensors, that monitor the performance
of the wires and send that info back
to your electric co-op.
Investments to develop those and
other parts of the smart grid in the
U.S. more than doubled in the past
six years, from $3.5 billion in 2014
to $7.8 billion in 2020, according
to the analysis company Statista.
That money means new jobs.
A report by the Energy Futures
Initiative found that energy jobs
grew at twice the rate of the overall
economy from 2015 to 2019.
Parts of the smart grid rely on
the internet, so that also means
growth in jobs related to cybersecurity.
Specialists are needed to guard against
internet hackers to protect co-op
member and business information
and make sure the electric supply is
safe and secure.
CO-OP DATA SCIENCE
The new role of a data scientist
determines how to use that information
Investments to develop the smart grid
in the U.S. more than doubled in the
past six years, and those investments
mean new job opportunities.
are filling include
data scientist
and cybersecurity
analyst.
coming in from the smart grid.
Reports of electricity use coming into
the co-op's computers could reveal
several members plugging in to
charge their electric vehicles around
5 p.m. every day.
That puts extra demand on the
utility when it's already at peak use.
A data scientist looking at those
numbers could recommend a special
rate to encourage charging those
electric vehicle owners after 10 p.m.,
when overall energy use isn't so high.
Those new careers - and yes,
you can go to school for a degree in
data analytics - will mean changes
in other parts of the co-op. Managers
of these new employees will be
supervising more jobs that can be
done remotely, and at any time of
the day or night.
NRECA's Banunarayanan says
that adapting to a different workforce
will mean a new era for co-op
managers as well, as they recruit and
supervise not just a new generation
of workers, but a new generation
of work. 
Emerging energy trends also
mean new skillsets for lineworkers,
particularly for servicing homes
that include rooftop solar panels.
Paul Wesslund writes on consumer and
cooperative affairs for the National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association.
18 | Cooperative Living | October 2021
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Cooperative Living October 2021

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