Southern California Edison: A Green Jobs Case Study

Electric utilities have a plethora of green jobs today with their conservation and renewable energy generation mandates.

Southern California Edison (SCE), which employs more than 15,000 people, has seen incredible growth in sustainable jobs in the last five years. Some of its departments are now solely focused on mitigating climate change and nearly every unit has at least one green job.

Positions at SCE run the gamut from entry level to highly technical and everything in between.

The company often needs project managers, financial analysts, account managers, customer service personnel and energy auditors.

Stuart Hemphill, vice president of renewable and alternative power, looks for job candidates with engineering, business, information technology, economics and energy policy backgrounds.

But the utility usually doesn’t seek out candidates with specific technical skills.

“Most [skills] can be learned on the job if the employee has strong interest and aspirations in the field,” said Bob Botkin, SCE manager of the California Solar Initiative and self-generation incentive programs.

Above all, executives are looking for people who can communicate and solve problems, have self-initiative, and are flexible and willing to learn new things.

The electricity business is extremely dynamic right now with a lot of technological innovation, so entrepreneurial and teamwork skills are very helpful.

Green Projects

“We’ve got literally hundreds of jobs to fill over the next 12 months,” said Paul De Martini, vice president of advanced technologies.

Growth in green jobs at SCE will be spurred by widespread retirements--in fact, nearly a quarter of all utility employees will be eligible for retirement in the next five to seven years. [See the Apollo Alliance’s report]

Plus, there’s an extensive list of renewable energy and conservation projects.

[Photo credit: Southern California Edison]

One of the biggest projects in the next few years will be SmartConnect, an advanced metering system that has the potential to save lots of energy and money.

The meter will give customers real-time information on how much energy their appliances are using at different times of the day. With customer permission, the advanced meter would even be able to remotely reduce the energy usage of “smart” appliances during peak periods (summer afternoons).

SCE has the goal of replacing 5 million residential meters with the SmartConnect meters between 2009-2012. This should generate about 200 union contract jobs, as well as a couple hundred jobs at Edison in project management and ongoing operations. In 2008, the company expects to hire 40-50 people for the project, according to De Martini.

SCE also manages $400 million in rebates for energy-efficient appliances, compact florescent light bulbs, solar panels and other products.


The utility is leasing 65 million square feet of warehouse roof space for solar panels. The project, which when completed will power more than 160,000 homes, should begin installation in June. [See The New York Times]

Plug-in hybrids pose great potential for SCE and other utilities in reducing peak load demand. The batteries can charge when demand is lowest and when wind energy is most abundant. The batteries could then discharge to the home or back to the utility during high energy usage periods.

As Stuart Hemphill said, “The career opportunities are virtually limitless.” There is much green work to do.