A line worker with thirty-five years of experience can often recognize a failing transformer before diagnostic equipment confirms there's a problem. An experienced system operator knows when a weather event is likely to create cascading outages because they've seen similar conditions dozens of times before. Dispatchers understand which crews work best together during storm restoration, and engineers remember why a particular substation was configured the way it was because they helped build it.

Much of that knowledge has never been documented.

It lives in conversations between coworkers, notes scribbled in field books, and decades of experience accumulated through thousands of hours responding to storms, maintaining infrastructure, and operating an increasingly complex electric grid.

Now imagine losing a significant portion of that expertise over the next decade.

That is the reality facing utilities across North America. According to the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD), retirements among tenured utility employees are forecast at more than 2% annually over the next decade, creating an ongoing challenge for workforce planning and knowledge transfer. At the same time, utilities are investing in advanced distribution management systems, AI, digital twins, distributed energy resources, and increasingly automated operations, making it critical to preserve institutional expertise while preparing employees for new ways of working.

For utility leaders, this creates a challenge that extends far beyond hiring.

Building the workforce for a digitally managed grid is not simply about replacing retiring employees. It is about preparing people to operate an electric system that looks fundamentally different from the one it did even ten years ago.

Technology is changing faster than the workforce

The electric grid is becoming more intelligent every year.

• Utilities are deploying advanced sensors across transmission and distribution networks.
• Field crews now rely on mobile applications instead of paper maps.
• Operators are using predictive analytics to anticipate equipment failures before customers experience outages.
• AI is helping prioritize vegetation management, forecast demand, and improve customer service.
• Digital twins are giving engineers the ability to model infrastructure before making operational decisions.

Each of these technologies creates new opportunities to improve reliability, safety, and efficiency.

They also change how people work.

A distribution engineer today spends less time reviewing static reports and more time interpreting real-time operational data. Field supervisors are increasingly expected to manage connected workforces equipped with mobile devices, drones, and remote monitoring tools. Control room operators must understand how automated systems make recommendations while still maintaining responsibility for critical operational decisions.

Technology is changing job responsibilities faster than many organizations are adapting their workforce.

That gap has become one of the greatest risks to successful grid modernization.

Modernization depends on more than technology

Utilities have never struggled to recognize the value of technology.

The industry has invested billions of dollars modernizing infrastructure, improving grid visibility, strengthening cybersecurity, and integrating renewable energy resources.

What proves far more difficult is helping people adapt to new ways of working.

It is not uncommon for organizations to invest heavily in new software platforms only to discover months later that employees continue relying on spreadsheets they trust, manual processes they have refined over decades, or workarounds that feel more familiar.

This is not because employees resist technology.

It is because people naturally trust the processes they understand, particularly when reliability and public safety are involved.

Every utility executive has experienced some version of this challenge.

• A new asset management platform is deployed, yet maintenance teams continue documenting work in notebooks before entering information later.
• A mobile workforce solution promises real-time updates, but field crews wait until the end of the day to synchronize information because that is how they have always worked.
• A new analytics dashboard is introduced, but managers continue requesting the same reports they received every Monday morning for the past fifteen years.

Technology adoption rarely fails because the software does not work.

More often, it fails because organizations underestimate the human side of transformation.

Tomorrow's grid demands a different kind of expertise

Historically, utilities hired specialists for clearly defined technical disciplines.

Engineers designed infrastructure. Operators managed grid performance. Lineworkers maintained equipment. IT teams supported business systems.

Those distinctions are becoming less defined.

Today's workforce increasingly needs to understand both physical infrastructure and digital technology.

• A field technician may use augmented reality to access repair instructions while standing in front of a transformer.
• An engineer may rely on AI-generated recommendations when planning asset replacements.
• Operations teams may monitor digital twins that combine information from SCADA, GIS, outage management systems, weather platforms, and distributed energy resources to create a real-time picture of grid conditions.

None of this eliminates the need for experienced utility professionals.

It makes their expertise even more valuable.

Technology provides more information than ever before, but people still make the decisions that affect customers, employees, and public safety.

When experience retires, it takes the grid with it

One of the greatest challenges utilities face is preserving decades of operational knowledge before experienced employees retire.

The information organizations are most likely to lose is often the information that was never formally documented.

• Why certain restoration procedures evolved over time.
• How specific substations behave during severe weather.
• Which equipment failures typically occur together.
• How local geography influences restoration priorities.
• Which maintenance approaches have consistently produced the best long-term results.

These insights rarely appear in operating manuals.

They are learned through experience.

Forward-looking utilities are recognizing that knowledge transfer should begin years before retirement rather than weeks before an employee leaves.

Mentoring programs, structured job shadowing, digital knowledge repositories, recorded technical walkthroughs, and collaborative planning sessions help ensure critical expertise becomes part of the organization instead of remaining with individuals.

The Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Strategy identifies workforce development as an important part of preparing the electric power system for the future, emphasizing the need for workers to be prepared for the new technologies required to support this transition. As utilities adopt more advanced technologies, preserving institutional expertise and preparing employees for new digital capabilities will become increasingly important.

Hiring data scientists won’t solve this problem

There is a growing temptation to think the solution is hiring more software engineers, data scientists, or AI specialists.

Those roles are certainly becoming more important.

But a digitally managed grid does not require replacing experienced utility professionals with technology experts.

It requires building multidisciplinary teams.

The most successful organizations combine operational expertise with digital capabilities.

• Engineers work alongside data analysts.
• Field operations collaborate with GIS specialists.
• Cybersecurity professionals partner with system operators.
• IT and operational technology teams become increasingly integrated instead of functioning independently.

This collaboration produces better outcomes because technology decisions remain grounded in operational realities.

A predictive maintenance model developed without maintenance personnel may identify statistical patterns but overlook practical constraints that determine whether repairs can actually be completed.

Likewise, experienced operators who understand grid behavior become significantly more effective when they have access to real-time analytics and predictive insights.

The future workforce is not defined by replacing one skill set with another.

It is defined by combining them.

Culture will determine whether technology delivers

Preparing employees for a digitally managed grid also requires leaders to rethink how change is introduced.

Too often, modernization programs focus almost exclusively on implementation milestones: Has the software been installed? Has the system gone live? Were employees trained?

Those are important checkpoints, but they do not measure adoption.

Successful transformation requires leaders to ask different questions.

• Are employees confident using new tools?
• Have outdated processes actually been retired?
• Do supervisors reinforce new ways of working?
• Are performance metrics aligned with desired behaviors?
• Is feedback continuously incorporated into future improvements?

Treating modernization as an ongoing operational capability rather than a one-time technology project can help organizations sustain adoption and realize greater long-term value from their investments.

Utility careers must evolve with the skills the industry needs

The workforce challenge is not limited to replacing retiring employees.

Utilities must also compete for talent with the technical and digital skills needed to support an increasingly modern grid.

Fortunately, utilities have a compelling story to tell.

Few industries are undergoing more significant transformation.

Employees have the opportunity to work with AI, advanced analytics, drones, robotics, digital twins, renewable energy integration, cybersecurity, and some of the most critical infrastructure in North America.

Framing utility careers around innovation as well as public service will become increasingly important for attracting engineers, analysts, technicians, and technology professionals.

Five questions every utility leader should ask before their next technology investment

As workforce planning becomes increasingly connected to digital transformation, leadership teams should consider several important questions.

1. Which critical operational knowledge exists only in the experience of individual employees?
2. Are our training programs preparing employees for tomorrow's grid or yesterday's processes?
3. How effectively are IT, operational technology, and business teams collaborating today?
4. Which digital skills will become essential over the next five years?
5. Does every technology investment include an equally thoughtful people strategy?

These questions often determine whether modernization efforts accelerate or stall.

The digital grid will only be as strong as the people running it

Utilities have never lacked engineering expertise.

What has changed is the environment in which that expertise must operate.

The grid is becoming more connected, more intelligent, and more data driven than at any point in its history. At the same time, the industry is navigating a significant workforce transition.

Those two trends are not separate challenges. They are deeply connected.

The utilities that succeed over the next decade will not simply invest in smarter infrastructure. They will invest in people who know how to operate it, improve it, and continuously adapt as technology evolves.

Digital transformation has never been solely about software.

It has always been about giving people the knowledge, confidence, and tools to make better decisions.

The organizations that recognize that today will be far better prepared to manage the grid of tomorrow.

Build what's next for the modern grid

From modernizing critical infrastructure to strengthening the workforce behind it, TSG helps energy and utility organizations bring the right people, technology, and expertise together to move transformation forward.