Generational changes happening at power plants

Basin Electric workforce transition highlights retirements, talent pipeline, and knowledge transfer at Antelope Valley Station in Beulah, as younger engineers leverage technology and mentoring to sustain power plant reliability, performance, and succession planning.

There’s a generational change going on at power plants across the state.

Many of the plants, like Basin Electric’s Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, hired a group of people when the plant first started. Now, most of those original employees are reaching retirement age. And a newer, younger group of employees is stepping up to fill the gap as broader nuclear industry hiring accelerates across the sector today.

Brad Heinzer decided it’s finally time to hang up his hard hat.

"I just hit 20 years last May and if I stayed ’til this May, it would be 21," Heinzer says.

He’s one of nearly 200 employees at Basin Electric who will be reaching retirement age in the next four years, adding to another 174 who have retired over the past four years, even as utilities compete for specialists to backfill critical roles across the industry.

"Here in the engineering department a few of us are getting about that age and we have a nice new crop of younger engineers in here that have been here a few years now," says Heinzer.

One of those is Craig Steffan, who’s worked as a performance engineer at Antelope Valley for just over 3 years.

"There is a group of us, 4 or 5 younger engineers who all started around the same time," Steffan says.

Steffan grew up in the area, but moved away when he got his Master’s in Chemical Engineering. The job opportunities at Antelope Valley brought him back home.

"I found the job description interesting, knew the industry is rewarding, my family members worked in it. It’s undergoing a change, with new U.S. reactor projects signaling growth, and there’s a lot of opportunity here," Steffan says.

As older workers begin to retire, a lost generation of workers heightens the risk of knowledge loss as they take with them years upon years of experience. But younger workers bring something with them... an understanding of technology and of the challenges the industry faces.

"That’s one good thing for us older guys, at least for me, I’m not really a computer person. When I have computer problems I can call one of the young guys in," Heinzer says.

And in return, the young guys have plenty of questions of their own, learning the ins and outs of the power plant, from control systems to upgrading aging power stations in practice, from some of the people who were there when the plant was first built.

Steffan says when he first started with Antelope Valley, he never could have imagined working there for as long as many of those who are now retiring did. But he says now he’s found a job that he enjoys, and he can imagine staying at the power plant for a long time.

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