Utilities

How will technology evolve the sector?

The convergence of operational and digital technology within Australia’s utilities sector presents a significant skills challenge as operators seek to modernise systems and improve efficiency. The desire to better understand and control systems performance in real time has led to major programs of work using Internet of Things technology, which requires the blending of digital technology skills with traditional operational technology capabilities. Energy utilities specifically are also having to cater to the emergence of home solar generation within the grid.

The vast amounts of data that can be generated through IoT deployments is also fuelling demand for data analytics and science skills to create actionable insights, along with automation skills to improve responsiveness within the network. And the requirement for utilities companies to work together in smart cities initiatives is driving the need for greater collaboration and systems thinking skills.

How will the demand for utilities workers evolve over the next decade?

Based on the nature of work for the most common occupations in the utilities sector, the workforce is ripe for technological disruption. Routine tasks, such as analysing routine data, are characteristic of many jobs, and innovations in artificial intelligence and the internet of things will make it increasingly cost-effective to automate such functions.

We predict a fall in demand for workers across each of the top 10 most common occupations in the utilities sector, over the coming decade. Most notably, truck drivers are predicted to experience a 16% fall in demand and office clerks 13%.

The task composition of these two roles differs but both are exposed to technological automation in different ways. The latter due to innovations in data capture, environmental monitoring and autonomous vehicles, the former due to the heavy role that routine administration and communication tasks play in the job.

The future of jobs and the skills needed

How widespread are skills shortfalls for new entrants to this sector?

Despite the net contraction in the size of the workforce, we anticipate that as the demands on utilities workers evolve, new vacancies will also be created. Filling these roles will require employees from other parts of the economy overcoming pervasive skills shortfalls.

Our analysis suggests the most common shortfalls in the available talent pool are in skills such as monitoring and critical thinking. The scale of the challenge in the utilities sector is among the largest of all sectors in theAustralian economy.

Our analysis suggests that programming, technology design and installation skills constitute the most acute skills shortfalls, given the existing capabilities of the available talent pool. We predict that, without action, new entrants to the utilities workforce will be 59%, 46% and 45% short of the required skill level, respectively. For other skills, the intensity of training required to prepare prospective workers is much smaller. The sector therefore faces a multi-faceted skills challenge comprising concentrated but acute skills gaps as well as widespread but shallow skills gaps.