A January 2017 report from the U.S. Energy Department states:
Workforce retirements are a pressing challenge. Industry hiring managers often report that lack of candidate training, experience, or technical skills are major reasons why replacement personnel can be challenging to find—especially in electric power generation.
The wave of retirements has been talked about for years and we’re at the point where it’s essentially old news. What’s important today is discussing how automation can help utilities address training, experience and technical skills so that newer workers can be productive faster.
Automation can help streamline operations/maintenance tasks and provides mobile tools to assist with troubleshooting and decision support. Technology solutions that provide more data are exactly what’s not needed given today’s worker situation. Rather, tools should help newer employees increase their ability to contribute faster.
An example of this is to provide mobile tools that help visualize plant data so workers can evaluate and troubleshoot problems wherever they may be.
On Wednesday, December 6th at the POWER-GEN 2017 conference, Emerson’s Harry Winn will be presenting a paper about this very topic called “Utilizing an Enterprise Data System to Enhance Power Plant Performance”. Also, at booth #5314, Emerson will be showcasing the Enterprise Data System along with other automation solutions specifically targeted to help today’s utility workers do their jobs easier.
Join us to learn more and request a complimentary exhibit pass for the conference.
From Jim: You can connect and interact with other power industry and industrial control system experts in the Power and Ovation groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
The post #POWERGEN 2017 Preview: Helping Power Generators Address the Skills Gap appeared first on the Emerson Process Experts blog.