2027 Event Agenda

Utilities are facing a convergence of workforce challenges at the same time grid complexity, capital investment, and operating cost pressures are accelerating. As experienced workers retire, turnover increases, and new technologies are introduced, workforce readiness has become a reliability, safety, affordability, and execution issue rather than an HR issue alone. This executive panel session brings together utility leaders to examine how workforce risk directly affects grid performance, financial sustainability, and long-term customer affordability. 

Through a peer-driven panel discussion, utility executives will explore workforce challenges that cut across field operations, control rooms, engineering, IT/OT, planning, and supervision. Panelists will share perspectives on why traditional approaches that rely on seat time, legacy knowledge, and informal on-the-job learning no longer scale. The discussion will focus on what it takes to clearly define readiness, measure proficiency, and build workforce pipelines that can keep pace with retirements, growth, and increasing system demands. 

Designed as an interactive executive roundtable, this panel focuses on what effective workforce readiness looks like in practice. Topics include accelerating time to productivity without compromising safety or reliability, improving consistency across operating regions, and aligning workforce strategies with capital execution and affordability goals. Attendees will leave with shared insights on workforce roles most at risk, practical 90-day pilot actions utilities can implement immediately, and metrics leaders can trust to support sustainable workforce readiness.