Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/659239
The Topic: Skills UTILITY WEEK | 1ST - 7TH APRIL 2016 | 11 T he next generation of utility engineers will need to provide answers to a new set of questions. How do we optimise our infrastructure, making it more productive and resilient while providing real-time benefits to customers and the environment? In our future world, we need to challenge the old paradigm of creating ever larger and more complex assets and find increasingly sustainable ways to meet our growing water, sanitation, drainage and energy needs. Engineers will play a key role in this future, but we need a new type of engineer with new skills that are as much attitu- dinal as they are technical. Our industry is being shaped by the need to provide secure services, with no net impact on natural resources, in a world with growing population and an unpredict- able climate. To succeed, engineers will need to develop so skills to help them navigate the complex challenges involved. The ability to work collaboratively will be crucial, but they must also question the traditional ways of doing things and have the imagination to create new ideas. They will combine sound science with a broad social, economic and environmental awareness. They will also develop commercial skills that are more oen associated with customer service and manufacturing production industries. Technology is developing at an exponential rate. Young people have innate skills in a digitally connected environment and understand how technology supports both personal productivity and consumer experience. As engineers, they will use these skills to model their ideas and to create dynamic, on-demand solutions to customer needs and environmental challenges. I believe, though, that our industry is ideally placed to attract and develop a completely new type of engi- neer. One that is driven to build a better world, combin- ing technical, economic and social skills to optimise our assets and services for a truly sustainable future. So where will we find these "future engineers"? We must start by attracting people from diverse back- grounds. The process should begin in our schools and continue in the development of higher level apprentice- ships to degree level. This will allow us to run paral- lel professional recruitment and development paths, blending vocational training with the more traditional graduate recruitment approach. By communicating the outcomes we are looking to achieve, we can build a strong, new talent pipe- line and attract young people with creative minds and a thirst for problem solving. Ian Davies is Europe Africa design director at MWH Comment: What skills will the engineer of the future have? Energy secretary Amber Rudd put the UK on the path to an unabated-coal free energy mix by 2025 with Novem- ber's reset speech. The plan is for a combination of renewables and new combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant backup to fill the capacity gap. However, the latest dash for gas could be held up by a skills shortage, according to an Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) report. IMechE head of energy and environment and lead author Jenifer Baxter told Utility Week: "The nine years to 2025 is a very short amount of time to be able to generate enough new people within the supply chain because [the companies involved] will just work and employ people to a level that is needed now." The reason for the chronic skills shortage in the UK is down to a lack of new-build CCGT projects in recent years, with younger engineers heading abroad to where new gas plants are being constructed. Mathew Sykes, recruitment manager at Spencer Ogden, agreed: "There is a gap. The thirty -somethings who have experience in CCGTs are just non-existent in the UK." He added that while some new talent was coming through, it was "too little too late". The extent of the skills gap will depend on what stage of the construction process new CCGTs are at, according to Prime Energy People consultant Qamar Khan. He said turbines can be manufactured anywhere in the world and shipped in, whilst a number of construc- tion tasks are relatively simple and will not "require too much engineering prowess". The hard part is when it comes to the electrical design of the plants and getting the cabling and high-voltage side of the build completed due to what Khan sees as the "huge shortage" of electrical engineers trained in the UK. Tom Grimwood, reporter COULD A SKILLS SHORTAGE HOLD UP A DASH FOR GAS? NEXT TOPIC: NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY One of the key areas where utilities are looking to grow their skills base is in the digital arena, as the need for data intelligence and cyber resilience grow. Alongside the cyber security chal- lenge, the utilities also have to protect and manage their assets from physical damage as well. New and novel technologies that have been developed, such as the use of remote monitoring systems and drones, help the energy and water com- panies keep tabs on their assets. The next Topic will take an in-depth look at the complicated challenge of security. MEETING THE SKILLS GAP: UK SHALE According to EY, growth in UK shale gas represents a significant opportunity for UK firms. Based on a scenario in which 4,000 wells are brought into produc- tion between 2016 and 2023, there would be a requirement for: £17 billion of spe- cialised equipment (pumps, trucks and blenders) and skills for hydraulic fracking. £4.1 billion for waste storage and transportation. £2.3 billion for steel casing. £1.6 billion for rig manufacture. Source: EY, Getting ready for UK shale gas: Supply chain and skills requirements and opportunities, 2014 UK electricity mix (Q3 2015) Source: Decc Gas Coal Renewables Nuclear Other 34.9% 17.1% 23.5% 21.8% 2.6%