The Power Shortage and the Skills Gap: Make the Case for Joining

NewsIdeasWorkforceViewpoint The Power Shortage and the Skills Gap: Make the Case for Joining By Jennifer Cahill Image: ENR March 13, 2026 Jennifer Cahill Large critical infrastructure projects involve lots of moving parts, and mistakes do occasionally happen. I recently visited a jobsite where the crew had inadvertently installed a couple of massive forced draft fans backwards. These were not the sort of units you flipped around once they’re bolted and wired into the system. It required a complete demolition and reconstruction. Failures like this point to a more fundamental challenge. Experienced personnel who in the past caught these problems early are retiring, and we’re now often struggling with an absence of institutional knowledge. The roots of this challenge stretch back well before the mid-2010s, but it became especially visible during that period. After decades of relying on a highly experienced workforce—many of whom had entered the power and construction trades in the late 1970s and 1980s—utilities and contractors began to see large cohorts retire in rapid succession. At the same time, the industry was undergoing a major shift. Investment in renewable energy projects accelerated, and demand for skilled labor surged just as veteran workers were leaving. To keep pace, companies expanded their headcounts, bringing in many people who were new to utility construction and power-sector practices. But when organizations scale that quickly, it becomes much harder to ensur...