Author: Jack Jordan, AEG Lead Fellow, Chicago
The atmosphere was lively with conversation and debate at the AEG Chicago Stakeholder Challenge on Grid Modernization this August 12th at the Holland & Knight law office. Despite the limited capacity of 48 invited leaders and additional COVID precautions, this Stakeholder Challenge upheld its high standard of stakeholder engagement and action with the participation of diverse leaders from utilities, solution providers, city government and energy/equity focused nonprofits.
This was the first in-person Advanced Energy Group (AEG) Stakeholder Challenge in any city since the pandemic began. Experts from ComEd, S&C Electric, Intren LLC, and RWE Renewables each presented a critical obstacle that Chicago must overcome to achieve its Carbon & Equity goals (regarding Grid Modernization). Stakeholders representing ComEd, City of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and others came to a consensus that the most critical obstacle to overcome is: Labor Shortage.
To kickoff the event, Hal Woods, Chief of Policy for Kids First Chicago, provided opening remarks on the importance of broadband connectivity as a key issue within grid modernization. Sharing information from the organization’s Connected Chicago program, Woods stressed that needed grid modernization cannot happen without more investment to bridge the digital divide.
“Kids First Chicago found through census data that roughly one out of every five households in the city of Chicago with a school age child lacked high speed internet access. This equated to roughly 110,000 kids, and 60,000 households. We also saw that in certain community areas upwards of a third to roughly half of households lack internet access.”
Hal Woods, Chief of Policy for Kids First Chicago, provides opening remarks on the Chicago Connected Program
The above map, presented by Woods, depicts Chicago Community Areas with the greatest number of children without broadband access
Students participating in Connected Chicago receive free, high-speed internet for their families. According to Woods, those students who participated in the program in its first year saw better attendance rates and better GPAs than their peers who were eligible but did not participate in the program.
“We can’t train the next generation of engineers and scientists to help create a smart grid economy unless students have access to broadband at home.”
Following Woods’ Opening Remarks, participants heard from four Grid Modernization experts who presented their differing perspectives on which critical obstacles stand in the way of Chicago reaching its Carbon and Equity goals. Speakers included: Sherina Maye Edwards, President and Chief Executive Officer, INTREN, LLC; Nwabueze Phil-Ebosie, Director of Engineering at ComEd; Tim Qualheim, Chief Technology Officer, S&C Electric Company and Maya Rao, Vice President, Head of Partnerships & Transactions, North America, RWE Renewables
While all four speakers made compelling cases, a runoff ensued between the obstacles outlined by Edwards and Rao.
Rao’s obstacle statement argued that stable, long-term funding from the state was required in order to provide an environment conducive for energy investment from developers.
“In order to achieve the scale of the investment needed to move the grid forward in Illinois, there must be the certainty that can only come with the knowledge that there’s a stable, credit-worthy customer of size on the other end,” Rao explained.
Meanwhile, Edwards pointed out that even with the policy, technology and funding for grid modernization, the fate of major projects hung on the labor force needed to build new renewable developments and repair the aging grid.
“To me, there’s only one option, and it’s to address the labor shortage...If you don’t have the people, you can’t do the work, and if you can’t do the work, you don’t have these vital infrastructure upgrades.”
To overcome this obstacle, Edwards recommended better support of workforce development in the industry, especially for blue-collar jobs, and increasing the awareness of young people about the benefits of such careers.
“Enough people do not know about the trades. They don’t know that you can have a good career as a lineman or as someone in this industry working out in the field. There is so much opportunity, and I think we need to do a better job in our industry of partnering with high schools, tech schools, trade schools, unions and community organizations to help create this pipeline.”
In the end, it was Edwards who won the Speaker Challenge. Participants reasoned that although funding was extremely important, only state legislation could provide the ultimate solution. Meanwhile, bolstering the city’s workforce development for careers in energy was a more feasible goal for the energy leaders in the room to develop a collaborative, near term solution.
“I see what Sherina is talking about in our workforce, and the need for training, replacement and information sharing,” said Dwayne Pickett, Director of Regulatory Solutions for ComEd and recent recipient of the Chicago Defender Men of Excellence award.
“We could subsidize and fund every project we want to do, build all the fiber communications we want to build, but if we are not training our kids and sharing knowledge, it won't matter. We can’t do any of that without what Sherina talked about today.”
Participants at the August 12th AEG Chicago Stakeholder Challenge develop a collaborative, near-term solution for the labor shortage issue as outlined by Sherina Maye Edwards of Intren.
This issue of labor shortage has been a common theme across AEG events in other cities. In New York City, Joan Jacobs, Vice President of Diversity for Con Edison, inspired the audience of leaders with the critical importance of employer outreach to attract more diverse talent to the workforce. As the workforce that built much of the country’s electrical infrastructure ages, cities and states must be cognizant of the important role of such skilled labor in their climate and energy plans.
With the Illinois General Assembly returning to Springfield this week to take action on energy legislation, it is possible that robust funding for workforce development such as that seen in the Clean Energy Jobs Act may be included.
In the meantime, a new Task Force was formed from this AEG Chicago event to evaluate existing workforce development programs in the energy industry and create a report based on its findings. Chaired by Em Hall, a PhD candidate in urban planning at UIC, the Task Force includes representatives from ComEd, Northwestern University, Slipstream, Unify Consulting, and others.
If you are interested in joining the AEG Chicago Workforce Development Task Force, please email Jack Jordan (jack.jordan@goadvancedenergy.com).
We look forward to bringing Stakeholders together again to discuss Mobility & Transportation on December 9th @ Holland & Knight. To get engaged, register here.